Officials of the leftwing Republican Turkish Party said on Sunday the opposition would have a one-or two-seat majority in the 50-seat parliament, in which seats are allocated under a complex proportional system.

But preliminary results show the RTP and its alliance partner, the Social Democrat Movement for Peace and Democracy, have together captured 25 seats. The bloc which opposes the re-unification plan, led by ruling National Unity Party, appears to have won the other 25 seats.

Momentum for change has accelerated in north Cyprus, with more than three-quarters of the population of about 200,000 supporting a settlement that would allow both sides of the island to join the EU on May 1. But without a clear outcome to the election, the opposition's effort to adopt the UN plan may be frustrated.