Godlike Productions - News: Cypriots vote for president seen as pivotal to reunifying divided island

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Monday, October 6, 2008

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Cypriots vote for president seen as pivotal to reunifying divided island

International Herald Tribune

2008-02-17

NICOSIA, Cyprus: Cyprus' presidential election was heading into a second round, an exit poll projected Sunday, with the three main candidates in a statistical dead heat.

Incumbent Tassos Papadopoulos, 74, was fighting for his political career, with exit polls broadcast by state-run CyBC television showing he may not move into the Feb. 24 runoff vote.

CyBC's exit poll showed Papadopoulos winning between 31-34 percent, rival Demetris Christofias 32-35 percent and former Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides 31-34 percent. The margin of error was between 1 and 2 percentage points.

Only two candidates can go through to the second round.

Exit polls for other TV stations showed similar figures, with Christofias slightly ahead and Papadopoulos and Kasoulides in a virtual tie. One exit poll, for Antenna TV, showed Papadopoulos slightly ahead by 0.3 of a percentage point, but it was within the margin of error.

Papadopoulos' slim lead in opinion polls had eroded in recent weeks.

The election is seen as pivotal to the decades-old search for a deal to reunify the ethnically divided island.

It has been billed as either a confidence vote in or a repudiation of center-right Papadopoulos, 74, who led the 2004 rejection of a U.N. reunification plan.

Heading into the election, opinion polls had suggested a close race between Papadopoulos, Christofias, 61, head of the reformed communist AKEL party, and the 59-year-old Kasoulides of the right-wing DISY party.

It is the first time since Cyprus gained independence from Britain in 1960 that there have been three, rather than two, top contenders for president.

All three candidates claim to be best qualified to head negotiations with the Turkish Cypriot community, separated from the Greek south since 1974 when a failed bid to unite the island with Greece triggered a Turkish invasion.

Each promises to clinch a new reunification agreement more attuned to Greek Cypriot concerns, but Christofias and Kasoulides argue the stakes are too high for a reprisal of Papadopoulos policies that have driven the island closer toward permanent partition.

"Our goal is to reunify this unfortunate land and these proud people," Christofias said after voting in the capital. "These people deserve a better fortune in their future homeland, the homeland we will rebuild."

Kasoulides said voters must choose whether to transform the island into a credible European state ready to undertake a "true struggle" for reunification.

With a new peace drive likely to start after the election, Papadopoulos giving him a renewed mandate would ensure an improved agreement that Cypriots could embrace.

"Today, Cyprus is stronger than ever before," Papadopoulos said after casting his ballot near his Nicosia home. "I hope, with the help of the people, we can achieve the (reunification) solution that we desire and deserve. The future rests in our hands."

Cyprus is internationally represented by the Greek Cypriot government in the south, while the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north is recognized only by the Turkish government in Ankara.

Despite Turkish Cypriot approval of the 2004 U.N. plan, its rejection by Greek Cypriots in separate referendums meant the island joined the European Union in 2004 still divided.

Some 516,000 voters, including 390 Turkish Cypriots living in the south, were registered to vote. Elected for a five-year term, the president is Cyprus' head of government.

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