The newly formed National Unity Party (UBP)-Democrat Party (DP)-Rebirth Party (YDP) coalition government held its first cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Prime Minister Faiz Sucuoğlu said that the cabinet’s first meeting had focused on planning and programming of work to be carried out by the various ministries as well as addressing urgent issues.

He explained that Health Minister Ali Pilli had requested assistance in writing from his Turkish counterpart Fahrettin Koca on addressing the issue of medicine shortages.

The prime minister expressed his belief that the problem will be solved swiftly.

Touching upon the issue of local elections, Sucuoğlu said that they launched work to reduce the number of municipalities from 28 to 12.

“We believe that we should limit the upcoming municipal elections in June to 12 municipalities in the six districts. If we are able to reach a consensus we could delay the elections by several months to complete the necessary legislative work,” he said.

Prime Minister Sucuoğlu also said that the Minister of Finance had made a presentation on the new electricity tariffs which will come into effect as of March 1.

Commenting on relations with Turkiye, Sucuoğlu said that his government and cabinet were in full harmony with Ankara and that the cabinet will continue to work to strengthen relations with the motherland.