Cyprus - 2018 Presidential Election
The start of 2018 marked the opening of the Cyprus presidential race. The election will take place on January 28. A run-off election was set to be held on February 4 if no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote. A total of nine candidates submitted their candidacies. Cypriot citizens all over the world will be voting for the country’s president for the next five years. A total of 38 voting centers will operate around the world for the 2018 presidential elections held in January 2018. In Greece there will be 15 centres for the Cypriot citizens. Five will be available in Athens, three in Thessaloniki and one each in Volos, Heraklion in Crete, Ioannina, Komotini, Larissa, Patras and Rethymno.
Incumbent Nicos Anastasiades was most likely to comfortably win the 2018 presidential elections with more than half the votes, Anastasiades, whose attempt to reach a Cyprus solution crashed and burned in Switzerland in July 2017, said the day after the election must find everyone united for the good of the country.
One of his main contenders in the presidential race, Stavros Malas, an independent backed by opposition Akel, said he would govern as the president of all Cypriots and asked voters for their trust. His candidacy was proposed by former President George Vassiliou, who was himself an Akel backed independent who governed from 1988 to 1993.
Democratic Party (Diko) leader Nicholas Papadopoulos, who was backed by socialist Edek, the Green Party and the Solidarity Movement was standing on a platform for change. “Together we are a massive social majority that wants to see an end to failed policies and that wants to restore dignity back to our people, who want to correct injustices, strengthen the social state, restore the middle class, to develop the Cypriot economy, to tackle conflict, corruption, to implement in practice a new strategy for the Republic of Cyprus, but also for efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem.”
Citizens` Alliance Movement President Yiorgos Lillikas, whose votes will be up for grabs in a second round most likely in return for a ministerial position, said his candidacy expresses an alternative policy, a new course for the Cyprus problem, the economy and social issues.
The leader of far-right Elam Christos Christou said the only clear voice among the parties right now was his. “We appeal to the people with the message that if they want change and are done with the old, corrupted and rotten, then the only clear voice is that of Elam,” he said.
Another presidential hopeful Haris Aristidou said the aim of his bid was his opposition to “the bigoted, bizonal, bicommunal federation, with a wrong or right content”. He also said he supported the “right of self-determination” and expressed his opposition to drug lords and the police, which he described as “corrupt”.
Wheelchair-bound Andreas Efstratiou said his candidacy was a bid to represent those on the margins of society. Efstratiou said the forthcoming elections were critical and referred to poverty and unemployment as well as the injustice that prevails in society. This was the tenth time he was running for election.
The poll was held against a backdrop of mistrust and frustration over what was widely seen as a line-up of uninspiring presidential choices. Persistent financial insecurity, social exclusion and concerns about corruption have fuelled broad disaffection - crucially, 75 percent of first-time Greek Cypriot voters didn't register to cast their ballot. But while many appear disengaged, the result of this election was seen as critical for Greek Cypriots emerging from a punishing financial crisis, all the while contemplating how, or whether, to move forward in a deadlocked peace process with the island's Turkish Cypriot community.
A candidate must win more than 50 percent of votes to secure an outright victory. If that threshold was not crossed, as it's expected, a runoff will be held between the top two contenders the following Sunday. Incumbent President Nicos Anastasiades, 71, of the right-wing Democratic Rally party, was tipped to the win the first round where 550,876 people have the right to vote.
In the second round, Anastasiades expected to face off either Stavros Malas, the 50-year-old independent candidate backed by the communist party AKEL who he beat in a 2013 runoff; or Nicolas Papadopoulos, the 44-year-old chairman of the Democratic Party and son of late President Tassos Papadopoulos, who in 2004 rejected a UN Cyprus reunification blueprint.
The first round was held on Jan. 28 during which none of the candidates passed the 50 percent threshold. Two other party-backed candidates, Giorgos Lillikas, who was supported by the Citizens' Alliance party, and Christos Christou, of far-right party ELAM, did not reach the February 4 runoff.
Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades won reelection to second five-year term 04 February 2018, promising to continue economic recovery and the island's reunification efforts. The conservative Anastasiades beat his leftist challenger Stavros Malas 56 to 44 percent. The two also faced-off in the 2013 election. Anastasiades was credited with helping the Greek Cypriot economy bounce back from a severe recession that required a bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
But there has been little progress in U.N.-sponsored reunification talks with the Turkish Cypriot north. Anastasiades promises to resist Turkish demands to keep a military presence on a reunified Cyprus and continue oil and gas exploration off the Greek Cypriot coast – an enterprise that also angers Turkish Cypriots.
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