Cyprus president re-elected for second term

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Europe

Cyprus's incumbent President Nicos Anastasiades comfortably won a second term in a runoff election on Sunday against leftist presidential candidate Stavros Malas.

With all ballot papers counted, the electoral service said that Anastasiades garnered 55.99 percent of the vote, with Malas trailing with 44.01 percent.

A presidential palace source said that Malas has called Anastasiades to congratulate him on his re-election.

Presidential candidate Stavros Malas (L) in his office after he was defeated in the second round runoff of the Cypriot presidential elections on February 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

Sundays' runoff was a repeat of the 2013 runoff in which Anastasiades was elected against Malas.

The electoral service said that 26.03 percent of eligible voters stayed away from polling stations, slightly lower than the 28.13 percent who didn't vote in the first round.

Anastasiades cruised to victory on the economic record of his government which turned a ruined economy in 2013 into a dynamic and flourishing one in five years.

Cyprus exited a bailout program from the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund in 2016 and achieved a growth rate of over four percent last year, one of the highest in the European Union.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades (C) waves to supporters as he arrives for a proclamation ceremony at the Eleftheria Hall in Nicosia after he won the second round of the presidential elections on February 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

Anastasiades also promised voters he will seek an early resumption of his stalled negotiations with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci for the reunification of Cyprus.

Anastasiades, age 71, represented Greek Cypriots in the negotiations which collapsed in Switzerland last July, over differences relating to the future of Turkish troops in Cyprus and intervention rights in the eastern Mediterranean island.

Cyprus was partitioned after Turkish military action in 1974.

United Nations troops forming one of the longest serving peace keeping forces control a buffer zone dividing Greek Cypriots in the south from Turkish Cypriots and Turkish troops in the north.

Supporters of the re-elected Cypriot president wave Greek and Cypriot flags outside his campaign office in the center of the capital Nicosia as they wait for him to speak after he won the second round runoff of the Cypriot presidential elections on February 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

The divided island became a member of the European Union in 2004 and joined the hard-core inner euro zone group.

Messages of congratulations by EU officials started coming in after official results were announced.

As soon as official results became final, Anastasiades went to his electoral office where he addressed election workers and thousands of his supporters who gathered on the street outside.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency