Nikos Christodoulides elected Cyprus’s president with 52% of vote

Nikos Christodoulides, a former foreign minister, has been elected the eighth president of Cyprus, beating the career diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis in a high-stakes, closely fought race.

Christodoulides, 49, won 51.92 per cent of the vote compared with 48.09 per cent for his opponent, who had been backed by the leftist party AKEL. A mere 15,041 ballots had divided the loser from the winner.

"Tonight a long but beautiful journey has come to an end," said Mavroyiannis, a former chief negotiator in peace talks with Turkish Cypriots, conceding defeat. "It gave me the opportunity to meet thousands of people and hopes and dreams for our country."

The result was immediately met with jubilation by supporters of the new president, as fireworks lit up the Nicosia sky and supporters clapped and danced.

But in an election filled with rare drama and suspense, it was also quick to elicit dread.

Christodoulides, who ran as an independent, had been backed by groups that take an openly hostile stance on talks to reunify the Mediterranean island.

For many his victory dashed hopes of a solution being found in the near future to the decades-long dispute that has left Cyprus, the EU's most easterly state, bitterly divided. "Today Greek Cypriots have voted in a government with very nationalist tendencies," said Cleopatra Kitti, a Cypriot policy adviser at the Athens-based thinktank Eliamep. "It is unlikely to back a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation any time soon which means this is likely to be another wasted opportunity."

The election came a week after Christodoulides emerged as the frontrunner in a first round that also pitted the two candidates against Averof Neofytou, the leader of the centre-right DISY, in power for the last 10 years.

Neofytou's defeat marked the first time that DISY, the biggest political force in the island's internationally recognised republic, had failed to make it to a runoff. The humiliation had been widely pinned on Christodoulides, who, refusing to toe the party line, had broken ranks to announce his candidacy.

Although leading DISY figures had signalled they would back Mavroyiannis, the party's refusal to formally endorse either candidate had thrown the race wide open.

"The outcome is down to conservative voters being unable to overcome the ideological barrier of voting for an AKEL candidate," said Christoforos Christoforou, a leading analyst specialised in electoral behaviour. "Fears over AKEL's management of the economy are also clearly still very real," he added referring to the island's banking crisis a decade ago, which has been widely blamed on the disastrous handling of the economy by the leftwing then president, Demetris Christofias.

Cyprus has been ethnically split with Greek and Turkish Cypriots living either side of a UN-patrolled ceasefire line since the 1974 Turkish invasion. Ankara sent in troops after a coup engineered in Athens sought to unite the island with Greece.

In the intervening years reunification efforts have repeatedly failed. With memories of peaceful coexistence fading fast, the poll had been described as the most significant election since 1960 when the former British colony won independence.

The last round of negotiations which brought both communities as well as the island's guarantor powers - Greece, Turkey and the UK - around the table collapsed in disarray in Switzerland in 2017. Not since talks began after the invasion has a hiatus been as long.

"The longer we take to settle this, the further we are from a resolution that would see all Cypriots living peacefully together again," said Kitti.

But while Christodoulides wooed supporters saying he would renegotiate the basis on which the UN-brokered talks have so far been held, he is also conscious that Greek Cypriots must regain the trust of the international community if the peace process is to be resurrected. Outgoing president Nicos Anastasiades, in power since 2013, had been blamed for obstructing a solution at the 11th hour. The leader had been unable by law to seek another five-year term in office.

Analysts said while Mavroyiannis would undoubtedly have taken a more conciliatory stance, Christodoulides had also shown he wanted to revive talks. During the campaign he suggested that Cyprus could support Turkey's desire to see its Customs Union upgraded with the EU as well as visa liberalisation for Turkish citizens entering the bloc in exchange for Ankara agreeing to open up a port for Cyprus-flagged ships.

"If the EU is smart it will work on that suggestion because it could break the logjam," said Fiona Mullen at the Nicosia consultancy Sapienta Economics.