Ex-foreign minister Christoulides wins Cyprus runoff presidential election
Former foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides was elected as the new president of Cyprus in a runoff election Sunday, pledging to revive stalemated reunification talks with the nation’s breakaway Turkish Cypriots and to form a coalition government with women filling half of the cabinet positions.
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Christodoulides, 49, won 51.92 percent to defeat fellow diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis, 66, who took 48.08 percent, the government election service in the south of the divided Mediterranean island announced.
The vote on Sunday, a runoff after an inconclusive first round last week, means Christodoulides will succeed two-term conservative President Nicos Anastasiades.
Mavroyiannis told reporters: “Tonight a journey has ended, a great journey that I shared with thousands of people. I regret we couldn’t achieve the change that Cyprus needed.”
Christodoulides, who defected from the conservative ruling DISY party to run as an independent, scored 32.0 percent a week ago, against 29.6 percent for Mavroyiannis, who also ran as an independent, backed by the communist AKEL party.
Widely tapped as the election favourite during the campaign, Christodoulides is seen likely to take a hard line on moribund UN-backed talks on ending the island’s decades-old division.
The former top diplomat Christodoulides earlier voiced confidence about a win when he told reporters: “The Cypriot people know and understand what is at stake, I have complete confidence in their judgement.”
Reuters
