Cyprus: Former Foreign Minister Christodoulides Elected President

Facts

• Center-right independent Nikos Christodoulides was voted on Sunday to be the president of Cyprus, beating left-wing independent Andreas Mavroyiannis with a majority of 51.9% in a run-off election.
• Christodoulides, who is considered a hard-liner regarding Cyprus' reunification issue, was originally from the ruling right-wing Democratic Rally party but broke ranks with the party and its leader Averof Neofytou.
• This tight race came a week after Christodoulides emerged as the frontrunner in a first round that marked the first time that the DISY ['Democratic Rally party'] — the biggest political force in the island's internationally recognized republic — failed to make it to a runoff.
• On Monday, Cyprus's president-elect had a telephone conversation with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, in which he expressed his readiness for resuming negotiations for a Cyprus settlement and argued that the status quo is not to the benefit of any of the two communities in the island.
• Ethnically Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been divided by a UN-patrolled ceasefire border since 1974. While Christodoulides wants to restore talks that collapsed in 2017, he is pushing for the UN framework governing discussions to be renegotiated.
• Outgoing president and Democratic Rally party member Nicos Anastasiades was ineligible to run after reaching the two-term limit following victories in 2013 and 2018. Coincidentally, both Greece and Turkey are also due to hold elections in the coming months.

Sources: ¹Politico, ²Guardian, ³Parikiaki Cyprus and Cypriot News, ⁴Al Jazeera and ⁵GreekReporter.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Cyprus Mail. Despite a lack of election experience, Christodoulides ran an effective campaign based on the message of being a unifying force. Now he must take this message and prove to be a strong leader — essential for his presidency and for making a good start in a new era for Cyprus.
• Narrative B, as provided by Peninsula Qatar. While the public had concerns such as the cost of living crisis, irregular immigration, and Cyprus's decades-long split, many voters simply chose to vote for the 'least worst' candidate. While this is a theme of many elections, Cypriots mostly simply desire that corruption is rooted out and the suffering economy improves.

Predictions