Cypriots vote in presidential elections

Cypriots were voting for a new president today in an election seen as pivotal to the decades-old search for a deal to reunify the ethnically-divided island.

The election is billed as either a confidence vote in or a repudiation of centre-right incumbent Tassos Papadopoulos, 74, who led the 2004 rejection of a UN reunification plan.

With a new peace drive likely to start after the election, Mr Papadopoulos appealed to voters to give him a fresh five-year mandate and to send a clear message that Cypriots do not regret turning down the plan.

“It’s very important to send the message both at home and abroad that the Cypriot people ... decide their own fate,” Mr Papadopoulos said in his final public message before campaigning ended.

Polls suggest a close race between Mr Papadopoulos and Demetris Christofias, 61, head of the reformed communist AKEL party.

Ioannis Kasoulides, 59, a former foreign minister and member of the right-wing DISY party, is a third strong candidate. The contest is likely to be settled in a February 24 runoff.