Cyprus: At the polls over 500,000 voters to elect a new president

Elections for the selection of a new president are being held in Cyprus today, Sunday, who will succeed Nicos Anastasiades, who is leaving after ten years and two terms.

A total of 14 candidates participate in the process, a number that is the largest in the history of the Presidential Elections of Cyprus. Of these, three concern party candidates and 11 independents.

Nominations for the position of President of the Republic of Cyprus were submitted by:

Andreas Efstratiou, Loukas Stavrou, Celestina De Petro, Christos Christou, Andronikos Zervidis, Achilleas Dimitriadis, Alexios Savvidis, Andreas Mavroyiannis, George Kolokasidis, Averof Neophytou, Charalambos Aristotelous, Konstantinos Christofidis, Iulia Hovrina Komnenos and Nikos Christodoulidis

The total number of persons entitled to vote in today’s Presidential elections amounts to 561,033. This number also includes 730 Turkish Cypriots.

In addition, 240 trapped people have the right to vote, 47 in the electoral district of Nicosia and 193 in the electoral district of Famagusta.

The 301 prisoners will be able to vote in a special ballot box inside the prisons, which will be mixed with the ballot box in the Department of Urban Planning and Housing.

730 Turkish Cypriots who have a permanent address in the free areas will be able to vote in the elections.

For voting purposes, 1,148 polling centers will operate, of which 1,113 centers in 5 Electoral Regions in Cyprus and 35 centers abroad, in 25 cities, in 12 countries.

In Greece, centers will operate in Athens (5), Volos, Heraklion, Thessaloniki (3), Ioannina, Komotini, Larissa, Patras and Rethymno,

In the UK, there will be centers in Glasgow, Leeds, London (5), Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol, as well as in Berlin, Vienna, Brussels, New York, Dubai, Luxembourg, Paris, Sofia, Stockholm and The Hague.

During the last quarter there were 10,558 new registrations in the electoral roll. This number is slightly higher than the equivalent of the 2018 Presidential Election, which was 10,410, but clearly lower than the equivalent of the 2021 Parliamentary Election, which was 15,168.

The Nicosia Region has the largest number of registered voters, namely 215,772 voters, followed by Limassol with 154,778, Larnaca with 95,518, Paphos with 51,994 and the free Famagusta with 32,625.

Another 10,346 chose to vote in the centers that will operate abroad.

The number of registered voters is 10,397 more than in the 2018 Presidential elections.

Of the total number of registered voters, 285,004 or 50.8% are women and 276,029 or 49.2% are men.

13.8% of voters are 18 to 29 years old, 50.4% are 30 to 59 years old, and 35.8% are 60 or older.

The elections will be held on the basis of a health protocol, which was drawn up in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Cyprus.

This protocol provides that, as for the persons who are positive cases of Covid-19, and are registered in the electoral roll, they are exceptionally given the possibility, on the day of the elections, to go to the electoral center, to exercise their right to vote, the same hours as the rest of the population.

Also, the use of a protective mask is mandatory for patients with coronavirus, as well as for people who will be present throughout the voting and/or sorting and counting of votes at the polling station, i.e. the employees and representatives of the candidates .

A recommendation is made to use a protective mask for all other voters.

The polls open at 7 am and close at 6 pm with a one hour break from 12 to 1 pm.

The first official results are expected shortly before 21:00.

In the event that the first candidate in preference crosses does not manage to gather 50+1 percent of the votes, the first two in crosses will be led to the second round next Sunday, February 12, when the new PtD will be selected and announced.