(MENAFN) Voting commenced early Sunday morning in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) as citizens headed to the polls for the initial round of the presidential election.

Balloting began at 8 a.m. local time (0500GMT) and will continue until 6 p.m. (1500GMT).

Voters are casting their ballots at 777 polling centers distributed throughout the country.

The number of eligible voters in the TRNC stands at 218,313. The current president, Ersin Tatar, is seeking re-election as an independent contender.

He is facing off against Tufan Erhurman, who leads the primary opposition group, the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), and is running as the official nominee of his party.

Several other figures are also participating in the race. Mehmet Hasguler, Arif Salih Kirdag, Ahmet Boran, and Ibrahim Yazici are all standing as unaffiliated candidates. Meanwhile, Osman Zorba is representing the Cyprus Socialist Party.

Another individual, Huseyin Gurlek, who had been anticipated to join the contest and whose name remains on the ballot, publicly stated on Saturday that he was stepping down in favor of Ersin Tatar.

To secure the presidency in this first phase, a candidate must obtain more than 50% of the votes—referred to as an "absolute majority."

If no contender reaches this threshold, the two individuals with the highest vote counts will proceed to a runoff election scheduled to occur within the following week.

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