As of 2010, there were only 7 female Northern Cypriots who held high-level positions in the Parliament of Northern Cyprus. The posts that the women occupied included parliamentarian and ministerial jobs, such as the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the appointed Minister of Education. Fatma Ekenoğlu was the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Onur Borman was the Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and was also the Minister of the Ministry of Public Works between 1993 and 1999. Gülsen Bozkurt was the former Minister of the Ministry of Health. Gülin Sayıner was one of the first two elected female members of the Parliament of Northern Cyprus (Republican Assembly) and served from 1987 to 1993. Şerife Ünverdi used to be the Minister of Labor and Social Security.MESSAGES HAVE BEEN ISSUED BY PRESIDENT DERVIS EROGLU, PRIME MINISTER IRSEN KUCUK AND MINISTER OF LABOR AND SOCIAL SECURITY SERIFE UNVERDI (BRT) Retrieved 2010-05-06. These women were able to reach out to voters of Northern Cyprus because of their medical backgrounds. In 2013, Sibel Siber became the first female prime minister of Northern Cyprus Turkish Cyprus to see first female prime minister, Hürriyet Daily News, 12 June 2013 and is running for president from the ruling Republican Turkish Party (CTP) in the 2015 presidential election. In spite of this, women constitute only 8% of the parliament as of 2015. Only 4 out of 47 female candidates were elected in the 2013 parliamentary election.
