— Exit polls at 8pm, Christofias-Clerides-Vassiliou to vote early —
Just over 526,000 people are registered to vote in the European Parliament elections in Cyprus on Saturday that will cost the taxpayer about 5 mln euros, up from the initial estimate of 4.5 mln, due to the addition of overseas voting centres.
The number of voters includes the 9,627 Cypriots who have registered to cast their votes in the 34 overseas polling stations, as well as the 6,458 nationals from 23 other EU member states who are resident in Cyprus and have chosen to vote here.
President Demetris Christofias will cast his vote in Engomi at 10am, with former presidents Glafcos Clerides and George Vassiliou at the same school in Lykavitos at 10am and 10.30am, respectively.
Among the 518,297 Greek Cypriots eligible to vote, 344 are from the enclaved villages of Rizokarpasso who will arrive under U.N. escort.
In all, 1305 Turkish Cypriots have registered to vote, evenly spread out in all districts. However, the biggest number of other EU nationals registered to vote can be found in Paphos (2343), followed by Nicosia (1596) and Limassol (1076).
The biggest grouping of non-Cypriot EU nationals are from Greece (2,912), just under half of all other EU citizens voting in Cyprus. The next biggest grouping is from the U.K. (1,349), followed by Bulgaria (985) and Romania (835).
An estimated 10,000 civil servants and police will be working throughout the elections on Saturday and until the official results are announced at 11pm local time on Sunday.
Lazaros Savvides, Chief Returning Officer, announced that the results of the exit polls conducted outside the voting centres may only be announced after 8pm on Saturday, after the polling booths have officially closed.
However, some television stations hope to break the news an hour earlier, in violation of the electoral law. The official results with the final count of the preference crosses that will determine which six candidates will represent Cyprus in the European Parliament will be announced on Sunday night.
Cyprus voters unsure of where to vote may send an SMS message to the number 1000 by texting “ekloges (space) (your identity card number)” for a quick reply. The national elections hotline is 77772212.
Turkish Cypriots living in the north can exercise their voting rights in specially designated polling stations in the districts of Nicosia, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Larnaca, while Turkish Cypriots living in the government-controlled areas as well as European citizens living in Cyprus will vote according to their place of residence.
Furthermore, the enclaved persons (Greek Cypriots living in the Turkish-occupied areas), as well as prison inmates will also vote in special polling centres.
Savvides announced the timetables for Cypriot voting at polling stations abroad (local time): Bulgaria, Qatar and Greece, 08:00 – 20:00 with one-hour break at 13:00: Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, Hungary and Italy 09:00 – 19:00 (one-hour break at 13:00), U.K. 06:00 – 18:00 (one-hour break at 13:00) and Russia and the United Arab Emirates from 09:00 – 21:00 (one-hour break at 14:00).
Additionally, people can be informed about the elections by visiting www.eurolections2009.pio.gov.cy or the Interior Ministry website (www.moi.gov.cy ), the Public Information Office (www.pio.gov.cy ) and the Republic's official website (www.cyprus.gov.cy ).
