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Reunification key issue as Cypriots vote for a president

Cypriots were voting for a new president yesterday in an election seen as pivotal to the decades-old search for a deal to reunify the ethnically divided island.

The election is billed as either a confidence vote in, or a repudiation of, center-right incumbent Tassos Papadopoulos, 74, who led the 2004 rejection of a UN reunification plan.

Polls suggest a neck-and-neck race between Papadopoulos and Demetris Christofias, 61, head of the reformed communist Progressive Party of the Working People.

For the first time since Cyprus gained independence from Britain in 1960, there is a strong third candidate in former foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides, 59, a member of the right-wing Democratic Rally party. The contest is likely to be settled in a Feb. 24 runoff.

With a new peace drive likely to start after the election, Papadopoulos said a renewed mandate for him would ensure an improved agreement that Cypriots could embrace.

"Today, Cyprus is stronger than ever before," Papadopoulos told reporters after casting his ballot near his Nicosia home. "I hope, with the help of the people, we can achieve the [reunification] solution that we desire and deserve. The future rests in our hands."

Cyprus is internationally represented by the Greek Cypriot government in the south, while the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north is recognized only by Ankara.

Despite Turkish Cypriot approval of the 2004 UN plan, its rejection by Greek Cypriots in separate referendums meant the island joined the EU in 2004 still divided.

All three candidates claim to be best qualified to head negotiations with the Turkish Cypriot community, separated from the Greek south since 1974 when a failed bid to unite the island with Greece triggered a Turkish invasion.

Some 516,000 voters, including 390 Turkish Cypriots living in the south, are registered to vote.

Voting began at 7am and no problems were reported, chief election officer Lazaros Savvides said.
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