By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
Associated Press
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Exit polls from the presidential election in ethnically divided Cyprus showed Sunday a former foreign minister leading a career diplomat by a tight margin in a runoff vote.
According to an exit poll by state broadcaster CyBC, Nikos Christodoulides, the ex-minister, garnered 50.5% to 53.5% against 46.5% to 49.5% for veteran diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis. Exit polls from four other private TV channels also put Christodoulides in the lead.
Christodoulides campaigned as a unifying force, eschewing ideological and party divisions, while Mavroyiannis positioned himself as the agent of change, ushering in a new political era following a decade of rule by outgoing President Nicos Anastasiades.
The exit polling suggested Christodoulides swayed enough voters from the largest Democratic Rally (DISY) party, whose leader Averof Neophytou failed to make it into the runoff. The DISY leadership decided not to formally back either candidate and left it to members to vote as they saw fit.
Many DISY party insiders had blamed Christodoulides, a long-time party member, for running against Neophytou and splitting the party vote.
However, many don’t want the communist-rooted AKEL, Mavroyiannis’ main backer, from regaining a foothold in government and fear the diplomat becoming the next president of Cyprus would threaten the country’s fragile economy and pro-Western trajectory.
Critics fault AKEL for bringing Cyprus to the brink of bankruptcy a decade ago and for maintaining a pro-Moscow slant.
Mavroyiannis had fended off suggestions that he would shape economic policies according to the directives of AKEL.
Amid the bickering within DISY, Anastasiades, a former party leader, took the unusual step of issuing a statement suggesting that DISY members should work to thwart an AKEL-backed government.
He urged the party’s voters to safeguard the island’s Western orientation and its deepening alliance with the U.S and to maintain fiscal discipline while effectively dealing with an influx of irregular migrants.
Some 561,000 citizens were eligible to vote and turnout for the runoff stood at 72.2%, marginally higher than in the first round of voting, according to official figures.
The new president will face the tough challenge of trying to revive stalemated peace talks with breakaway Turkish Cypriots, who declared independence nearly a decade after a 1974 Turkish invasion that followed a coup aiming at union with Greece.
Both Christodoulides and Mavroyiannis were key insiders during the last failed peace drive at a Swiss resort in 2017 as close confidants of Anastasiades. Both have pointed to Turkey’s insistence on maintaining a permanent troop presence and military intervention rights in a reunified Cyprus as the main reason for the unravelling of negotiations.
Christodoulides has said he draws the line at those two Turkish demands, while Mavroyiannis softened his stance to woo left-wing voters who think more could have been done to reach a deal in Switzerland.
“Mr. Christodoulides’ candidacy is an opportunity for Cypriot people to turn the page, with a new type of governance, with a humanist purpose above all else,” voter Neophytos Makrides, 58, said as he cast his ballot in Paphos. “No to corruption and in favor of the right resolution of the Cypriot problem.”
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