Leftwing candidate for Cypriot presidency Stavros Malas votes at a polling station in Nicosia, Cyprus, Feb. 4, 2018. Cypriots started voting on Sunday in the runoff presidential election, a replica of the runoff five years ago in which center-right candidate Nicos Anastasiades beat leftist Stavros Malas with a comfortable margin. (Xinhua/PIO)
NICOSIA, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cypriots started voting on Sunday in the runoff presidential election, a replica of the runoff five years ago in which center-right candidate Nicos Anastasiades beat leftist Stavros Malas with a comfortable margin.
Supported by center-right party Democratic Rally, Anastasiades is seeking a second term. Polls show 35.51 percent of the vote in the first round for Anastasiades compared to 30.24 percent for Malas, who is supported by the left-wing AKEL opposition party.
The electoral service said that after four hours of voting, 10.9 percent of voters have cast ballot papers, a little higher than the 10.5 percent in the first round, but lower by just over 1 percent compared with the 2013 runoff.
Anastasiades focused his campaign on economy, which is according to him near melt-down due to high spending and deficit left by the previous left-wing government, in which his rival Malas was a health minister.
Malas focused his campaign on accusing Anastasiades of making the people suffer by accepting an austerity economic program demanded by international lenders and of being incapable of negotiating a Cyprus solution.
Despite the different economic and social policies the two candidates have, they hold remarkably close views on future solution of the Cyprus problem, which is a reunification in a federal, two-community state of Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Voting stations opened at 6 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) and are scheduled to close at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT).
Exit polls are expected shortly after the closing of electoral stations.
The electoral service said that final results are expected at 7:30 p.m.
The new president will be nominated during a ceremony scheduled for 10 p.m.
