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Greek Cypriots go to the polls to vote in presidential election Cyprus president faces runoff after failing to win overall majority
(35 minutes later)
Nine candidates in race that could be decisive in reuniting Mediterranean island Nicos Anastasiades falls short of 50% needed to win outright and will face Stavros Malas
Helena Smith in AthensHelena Smith in Athens
Sun 28 Jan 2018 14.12 GMT Sun 28 Jan 2018 21.05 GMT
Last modified on Sun 28 Jan 2018 20.50 GMT First published on Sun 28 Jan 2018 14.12 GMT
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Greek Cypriots have begun casting ballots in a presidential election that could be decisive in reuniting the Mediterranean island after more than 40 years of division. Presidential polls in Cyprus were inconclusive on Sunday, with no candidate winning an overall majority, forcing a runoff on 4 February between the incumbent, Nicos Anastasiades, and Stavros Malas, a communist-backed former health minister.
Polling stations across Cyprus’s internationally recognised southern sector opened shortly after sunrise on Sunday. Nine candidates are competing for what will be the former British colony’s most powerful post since independence in 1960. Anastasiades, leader of the conservative Democratic Rally (Disy) party, came in first with 35.50% of the vote but fell short of the 50% required to win outright. In a repeat of the island’s last presidential election, he now faces Malas, who ran as an independent with the support of theProgressive Party of Working People (Akel). The geneticist won 30.35% sparking scenes of jubilation among supporters.
Among the all-male line up for the fixed, five-year term is the incumbent president, Nicos Anastasiades, and Christos Christou, leader of the far-right Elam party. The Diko party leader, Nikolas Papadopoulos, whose nationalist views are seen as anathema by ethnic Greeks still hoping to unite war-divided Cyprus, trailed with 25.74%. “I know a lot of friends feel bitter and disappointed, so do I,” he said once the results were announced.
An estimated 550,000 people are eligible to vote, according to election officials. “I urge all citizens to come out and vote,” said Anastasiades as he cast his ballot in Nicosia, highlighting fears of voter apathy particularly among young people dejected by a political system seen as corrupt and inept. “No one is justified to complain about the election’s results afterwards.” His failure to make it into the second round was greeted with relief by voters desperate to bridge the divide with their Turkish Cypriot compatriots. The European Union’s most easterly member state, Cyprus has been partitioned since a rightwing coup for union with Greeceprompted Turkey to invade in 1974.
The front-runner in the race, the 71-year-old Anastasiades has led a campaign based on his track record as a safe pair of hands, arguing that under his watch Cyprus has rebounded spectacularly from the depths of near economic collapse in 2013. “Two-thirds of Greek Cypriots went for candidates who openly support a federal settlement,” said the bi-communal lobby group Unite Cyprus Now.
In sharp contrast to debt-laden Greece, international supervision of the republic’s economy ended when, despite the odds, it successfully exited a €10bn bailout programme in 2016. Anastasiades, 71, campaigned for re-election promising to re-energise the stalled peace process. UN-mediated talks aimed at uniting Cypriots in a bizonal federation collapsed amid anger and mutual recrimination last July but still came closer than ever before to success.
If re-elected, Anastasiades, leader of the rightwing Disy party, said he would restart negotiations to reunite the island’s ethnic Greek and Turkish communities in a bizonal federation at the point at which they collapsed in Switzerland last summer. Akel also backs rapprochement with Turkish Cypriots living on the other side of a UN-patrolled “green line” in the island’s north. “The people have spoken,” said Malas. “We turn a new page looking to the future with optimism, confidence and determination,” hesaid before congratulating Turkish Cypriots for marching in favour of peace and democracy after Turkish nationalists attacked a pro-reunification newspaper, Afrika, last week.
The UN-mediated peace talks came closest yet to ending partition. In 1974, Turkey invaded the island, seizing its northern third where about 40,000 troops are still stationed after a coup aimed at uniting it with Greece. The electoral outcome unleashes a week of political horsetrading. The far-right Elam party, which emerged in fourth place with 5.56%, said it would send a questionnaire to both candidates before deciding who it would endorse in the second round. The ultra-nationalists have close links to the neo-fascist Golden Dawn, Greece’s fourth-largest political force.
But while Anastasiades has consistently led opinion polls in the runup to the ballot, few analysts believe he will garner enough votes to avoid a runoff on 4 February. Revelling in the party’s success, its leader, Christos Christou, said: “They should be sure that no one will ever be able to mock the patriotic front.”
Challengers include the Diko party leader, Nicholas Papadopoulos, 44, the son of Cyprus’s late president Tassos Papadopoulos, who is widely viewed as a nationalist rejectionist because of his inflexible line on reunification. Nine candidates competed in the all-male race for the five-year presidency.
Stavros Malas, a former health minister, is also running as an independent with the support of the communist Akel party. Either one could cull enough votes to enter a second round. The first exit polls are expected at about 18:30 GMT. After a lacklustre campaign where the national issue took second place to the economy, voter apathy also emerged victorious with only 395,915 voters casting ballots. More than 550,000 citizens were eligible.
CyprusCyprus
EuropeEurope
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