Turkish Cypriots today voted in a snap parliamentary election expected to be won by the left after the collapse of the conservative administration of the breakaway north of divided Cyprus.
Voter turnout was a lowly 42 percent in Nicosia and 52 percent in Famagusta on the coast two hours before polling stations closed at 1500 GMT, the electoral commission said, with the first results due at around 1700 GMT.
Around 70 percent of the electorate voted at the last election in 2009.
Opinion polls predicted the leftwing Republican Turkish Party (CTP) would comfortably beat the nationalist National Unity Party (UBP) amid public anger over its austerity policies when in power.
The UBP government lost a non-confidence vote on June 5 when eight of its own MPs defected over a privatisation programme it said was necessary to honour a 2010 deal with Turkey.
Ankara is a key aid donor and the only government that recognises the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
It was unclear whether the CTP would win an outright majority in the 50-seat parliament under the north's proportional representation system or would need to find a coalition partner among the three smaller parties which also contested the election.
The new government will have to cohabit with nationalist president Dervis Eroglu, whose five-year term runs until 2015.
Analysts said a CTP-led government could prompt an easing of Eroglu's tough stance towards talks with the Greek Cypriots in the south on ending the Mediterranean island's nearly four-decade-old division.
The Turkish Cypriot leader today called for an urgent dialogue between the rival political parties.
"It is absolutely vital that there be dialogue between the parties," Eroglu told reporters. "I think these elections are an opportunity to begin such a dialogue straight after the vote.
