From AFP: Hardliner Dervis Eroglu won the Turkish Cypriot presidential election Sunday on the divided island of Cyprus, ousting pro-settlement candidate Mehmet Ali Talat but vowing to work for a peace deal.

"No-one must think that I will walk away from the negotiating table … The talks process will continue," Eroglu told Turkey’s NTV television.

"I will work with goodwill for a solution that takes my community’s rights into account," he said, adding that he would have ‘close talks with the mother country’ Turkey, which keeps a 35,000-strong garrison in northern Cyprus.

With all votes counted, right-wing National Unity Party (UBP) chief Eroglu, 72, who has served several terms as premier, secured 50.4 percent of the vote, while incumbent president Mehmet Ali Talat won 42.8 percent.  (photo: AFP)

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