Cypriots have begun voting for the eighth president of their 63-year-old independent state. There are three candidates in the running. After a campaign that was dominated by issues like corruption, labor disputes related to accelerating inflation, irregular migration, and a deadlocked peace process with estranged Turkish Cypriots who live in the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, some 561,000 Greek Cypriots are eligible to vote in the election on Sunday, which marks the end of two terms for incumbent conservative President Nicos Anastasias.
Starting at 7am (or 05:00 GMT), voters can cast their ballots until 6pm (16:00 GMT). Voter turnout could be affected by the heavy rain and storms anticipated for Sunday, according to weather analysts. There are now 14 applicants for the position, but according to the surveys, only three of them stand a realistic chance of winning. Nikos Christodoulides, 49, a former government spokesman and foreign minister, has consistently led all opinion surveys throughout the months-long campaign. He is running on a platform of uniting a divided electorate by reaching across party lines and ideological divides. Christodoulides will face either the leader of the conservative DISY party, Averof Neophytou, or the left-leaning AKEL party’s endorsed career diplomat, Andreas Mavroyiannis, in the run-off. The leftist daily Politis wrote that Cypriots needed to choose a president who would lead “with honesty, fairness, and openness,” while the more widely read Phileleftheros noted the likelihood of massive voter abstention. The people of Cyprus will be looking to their new president to take swift action to stabilize an economy that has been hit hard by Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and its subsequent impact on the cost of living. Cyprus has followed all restrictions imposed on it because of Russia and Belarus’ invasion of Ukraine.
With a high rate of asylum claims per person in the European Union, migration has also become a contentious subject for the island of Cyprus. Amidst a global energy crisis, it is crucial for Cyprus to capitalize on its offshore natural gas supplies and resume talks with the island’s breakaway Turkish Cypriot population in order to end the island’s racial separation. The United Nations has attempted to mediate numerous times without success. Since 2004, Cyprus has been a member of the European Union (EU), however EU law and regulations only apply in the Greek Cypriot south.
