President eliminated in Cypriot election

CYPRIOT President Tassos Papadopoulos was eliminated yesterday from Cyprus’s presidential run-off in a huge surprise after a cliff-hanger election that saw three candidates neck-and-neck until the last minute.

“The people have judged and decided. Their choice is completely respected,” said Mr Papadopoulos.

The election, which will be determined in a February 24 second round, is seen as pivotal to the decades-old search for a deal to reunify the ethnically divided island — a division that has proven a big stumbling block to Turkey’s efforts to join the EU.

Communist party leader Demetris Christofias, 61, and 59-year-old former foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides of the right-wing DISY party will now vie for the five-year presidency in next Sunday’s run-off.

Mr Papadopoulos, 74, had seen his slim lead in opinion polls eroded in recent weeks but he had been expected to advance to the second round.The vote had been billed as a verdict on centre-right Mr Papadopoulos and his handling of the island’s 34-year division.

The president was instrumental in successfully urging Greek Cypriots to reject a UN reunification plan in 2004 which the Turkish Cypriots approved inreferendums.