NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cypriots will elect a new president Sunday in the small island nation’s shifting geopolitical sands and uncertain economic times, underscoring ongoing efforts to tackle the country’s ethnic divide.
The months-long campaign has been a no-brainer, with the three front-runners mainly close friends of President Nicos Anastasiades, whose battle has focused on trying to convince voters.
At the same time, the right-wing Anastasiades has been trying to escape the long shadow of a different ideological spectrum, which critics accuse of allowing corruption to run rampant during his two 10-year terms. Duration. Anastasiades vehemently denies the allegations.
Of the 14 registered candidates, the frontrunners are Averof Neofitu, the leader of the center-right, pro-business Democratic Rally (DISY) party, which Anastasiades previously led; and Nikos Christodoulides, former foreign minister and government spokesman in the Anastasiades administration. A third major candidate, Andreas Mavroyannis, is a former diplomat and Anastasiades’ lead negotiator in peace talks with the Turkish Cypriot bloc.
Polls indicate that none of the three will get more than half the vote – an outright victory in the first round. Instead, the top two could advance to the finals a week later. About 561,000 citizens are eligible to vote.
Opinion polls have consistently given Christodoulides a lead of up to 10 points over Neophyto and Mavroiannis, meaning he will probably take one place in the final, with the others fighting neck and neck for the other.
The ‘Anastasiades relationship’ has been a central theme for voters, but the president himself, in a recent interview with the leading daily newspaper Phillefteros, said he felt “somewhat vindicated” by having three of his associates in the leadership. They are racing to replace him.
The 61-year-old neophyte took over the reins of DISY from Anastasiades and campaigned on his reputation as a skilled political operator who gets the job done and protects the economy in difficult times. The “Averof Can” campaign slogan is built around this message, inspired by former US President Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” mantra.
But it is that reputation that appears to have hurt him in the polls, with many voters seeing him as an insider troubled by the “sins” of Anastasiades’ decade in office, such as the now-defunct investment-for-citizenship program that sparked allegations of corruption. Neophyte is desperately trying to shore up the DISY vote behind his bid, with polls showing that about a third of party members support Cristodolides, who made his political debut through the party.
Mavroyannis, 66, a career diplomat with a successful career, is an independent but has the support of the communist-led AKEL party. Although AKL is the island’s second-largest party, Mavroiannis himself remains somewhat of a burden to the party, which critics say bankrupted the island during the presidency of late leader Dimitris Christofias 15 years ago.
Unlike his rivals, Mavroiannis is campaigning as an agent of change who has not had a hand in the “10 years that have really hurt” the country.
Christodolidus is a career diplomat. At the age of 49, he has managed to carefully decorate his image as an effective and modern leader who can rub shoulders with other EU leaders with his experience in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His youthful and naive demeanor endeared him to voters who did not associate it with the ineffectual bombast of previous political generations. Some Desai loyalists, however, see him as a “renegade” for competing with the party chief and splitting his votes.
Who would win if – like other EU leaders – Russia is hit by the war in Ukraine and the economic impact on the cost of living. Despite Cyprus’ economic growth, polls show widespread public unrest due to high inflation.
The new president must address the continued high influx of refugees that has made Cyprus one of the top countries in the EU in terms of asylum claims per capita.
He also wants to speed up the development of vast offshore natural gas reserves in Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone, prompting Russia’s search for an alternative source of energy fueled by the war in Ukraine.
A quick political settlement to quickly resolve the nearly half-century-old tribal divide on the island would facilitate this, but in 2010 With the sides seemingly further apart than at any time since the split in 1974, when Turkey was invaded by an anti-union coup, the prospect looks bleak. with Greece.
A request by both Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots to recognize a separatist state before the start of peace talks is seen as a non-starter and has been condemned by the EU, the US and others.