Cypriots will head to the polls on Sunday to vote for a new president. The country is facing shifting geopolitical sands and uncertain economic times, which have become the primary concern for citizens, overshadowing the ongoing efforts to remedy the country’s ethnic division.
The presidential campaign has been a lackluster affair, with the three leading candidates, all close associates of outgoing President Nicos Anastasiades, trying to differentiate themselves from each other. At the same time, they have been trying to win support from voters across the political spectrum while evading the shadow cast by the right-wing Anastasiades. Detractors have accused the outgoing president of enabling corruption during his two-term, 10-year presidency, a claim he strongly denies.
The Democratic Rally Party’s leader Averof Neophytou leads a record field of 14 candidates, while former foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides, who was government spokesman during Anastasiades’ administration, and Andreas Mavroyiannis, a former diplomat who negotiated with the breakaway Turkish Cypriots in peace negotiations, are among the frontrunners. The next president will be tasked with leading the small island nation through challenging times and finding a solution to the country’s ethnic division.
According to opinion polls, none of the three candidates is expected to win more than half of the votes in the first round. The top two will then proceed to a runoff in a week, with 561,000 citizens eligible to vote. The leading candidate, Christodoulides, has 10 points over Neophytou and Mavroyiannis, with the latter two battling for the second spot in the runoff.
There has been much attention paid to the “Anastasiades connection” by voters and president Anastasiades, who claimed in a recent interview that his leadership had been vindicated by the fact that three of his associates are running to succeed him. Neophytou, 61, has campaigned on his reputation as a skilled political operator who can lead the economy through tough times. The perception that he is too much of an insider has hurt him at the polls. On the other hand, Mavroyiannis, 66, a career diplomat with the backing of the AKEL party, is running as an agent of change who was not involved in the “10 years that have truly wounded” the country. Christodoulides, 49, has positioned himself as an effective and modern leader, but some DISY faithful refer to him as a “traitor” because of his running against party leader.
The new president will have to address various challenges, including an economy affected by the Russia-Ukraine war and high inflation, a continued massive influx of migrants, and the development of undersea natural gas deposits amid a renewed search for alternative energy sources. A swift resolution to the island’s ethnic division would facilitate the result, but prospects are bleak as the sides appear farther apart now than at any time since the split in 1974. EU, US, and other countries condemn Turkey and Turkish Cypriots’ demands for the recognition of a breakaway state before peace talks begin.