Christodoulides takes lead into election runoff

Former foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides took the lead in Cyprus’ presidential election on Sunday and will face off against leftist-backed candidate Andreas Mavroyiannis in a runoff on February 12.

Christodoulides, running as an independent, took 32% of the vote, with career diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis, backed by the left-wing AKEL party and generally considered an outsider by opinion polls, presenting the surprise at 29.6%.

Mavroyiannis’s showing defied opinion polls which had shown he would likely trail in third place and would be left out of the runoff.

But he had the backing of AKEL, a well-organised party which had cranked up the rallying of its supporters in the past month.

“It comes down to Mavroyiannis having the full backing of a party and that Averof (Neofytou) probably didn’t,” said analyst Fiona Mullen of Sapienta Economics, referring to third-placed Averof Neofytou, leader of the ruling right-wing DISY party.

“It’s an extraordinary result,” she added.

Neofytou -who got 26% – had been publicly endorsed by incumbent President Nicos Anastasiades, who by law cannot seek a second five-year term, but his candidacy was overshadowed by Christodoulides, a party member who broke ranks with DISY to run.

Opinion polls had shown Christodoulides gaining roughly one-third of the DISY votes.

It is the first time an official DISY candidate has failed to pass the first round.

The two frontrunners from Sunday’s vote will now have a week to win over voters, after which the victor will have to wrestle with how to break a deadlock in reunification talks on ethnically split Cyprus, as well as with irregular migration, labour disputes, and repairing the country’s image tarnished by corruption scandals. (source Reuters)