Former Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides has won the presidential election, promising to restore unity and resume negotiations with the Turks living in Northern Cyprus, writes Reuters.
The official results show that Christodoulides won only by a small margin, gaining the support of 51,9% of the voters. His rival, diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis, won 48,1% of the vote.
The newly elected president ran as an independent candidate and was supported by the centrist and center-right parties, which usually take a hard line on solving division of Cyprus. In a speech in the Cypriot capital Nicosia, Christodoulides said:
«I look you in the eyes and give you a promise – I will do everything to be worthy of your trust. I will be president of all Cypriots.»
Christodoulides, who is considered a young and energetic politician, has often been in the public eye in the last decade, both as a government spokesman and as the foreign minister of Cyprus. The new president faces a series of challenges, from stalled peace talks and employment discussions amid rising inflation to corruption scandals and an immigration wave that is forcing authorities to process thousands of applications from asylum seekers.
In Cyprus, presidential elections are held every five years. The current president, Nicos Anastasiades, has been in power since 2013, and the law prevents him from running for a third term. The campaign was thoroughly chastened by the issue of the division of Cyprus.
The island has been divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion, which was caused by a coup, instigated by the then-ruling Greek military junta. The last round of negotiations on the reunification of the country failed in 2017. Christodoulides states that he wants to resume negotiations, however, the guidelines established by the UN for the conduct of negotiations must be reviewed.