None of the 14 candidates in Sunday’s presidential elections in Cyprus obtained an absolute majority of votes to be elected in the first round, as largely expected by polls: the two most voted were former foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides, a centrist, and Andreas Mavroyiannis, from the left, who with 32 and 29.6 per cent of the votes respectively will compete in the ballot next February 12th.
Christodoulides was the candidate favored by the polls, albeit below the threshold needed to be elected in the first round: he presented himself as an independent, but is supported by various centrist parties. Mavroyiannis, on the other hand, is supported by AKEL, the left-wing Progressive Workers’ Party: it was expected that he or Averof Neofytou, the leader of DISY, the centre-right party of outgoing president Nikos Anastasiadīs, would challenge Christodoulides in the runoff, as well as the former party of Christodoulides. Averof came in third, with just over 26 percent of the vote. About 404,000 people voted out of the 561,000 who registered to do so, with a turnout of 72 percent.
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