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President Tassos Papadopoulos was eliminated Sunday from Cyprus' presidential runoff in a major surprise after a cliffhanger election that saw three candidates neck-and-neck until the last minute.
The election, which will now be determined in a Feb. 24 second round, is seen as pivotal to the decades-old search for a deal to reunify the ethnically divided island — a division that has proven a major stumbling block to Turkey's efforts to join the European Union.
Communist party leader Demetris Christofias, 61, and 59-year-old former Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides of the right-wing DISY party will now vie for the five-year presidency in next Sunday's runoff.
Papadopoulos, 74, had seen his slim lead in opinion polls eroded in recent weeks, but he had been widely expected to advance to the second round.
The vote had been billed as a verdict on center-right Papadopoulos and his handling of the island's 34-year division. The president was instrumental in successfully urging Greek Cypriots to reject a U.N. reunification plan in 2004 which the Turkish Cypriots approved in referendums.
1. Kasoulides 33.51%
2. Christofias 33.29%
3. Papadopoulos 31.79%
Papadopoulos' concession came in a telephone call to Christofias to congratulate him, state-run CyBC television said.
Supporters for both Christofias and Kasoulides spilled out onto the streets of Nicosia, cheering, honking car horns and waving Cypriot and a few Greek flags.
"Supporters were justified to feel this way," said Andros Kyprianou, spokesman for Christofias' AKEL communist party. However, he said, "we await another tough week, as equally tough as this one."
It was the first time since Cyprus gained independence from Britain in 1960 that there had been three, rather than two, top contenders for president.
All three claimed 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.
Each promised to clinch a new reunification agreement more attuned to Greek Cypriot concerns, but Christofias and Kasoulides argued the stakes are too high for a reprisal of Papadopoulos policies that have driven the island closer toward permanent partition.
"Our goal is to reunify this unfortunate land and these proud people," Christofias said after voting. "These people deserve a better fortune in their future homeland, the homeland we will rebuild."
Kasoulides said voters must choose whether to transform the island into a credible European state ready to undertake a "true struggle" for reunification.
With a new peace drive likely to start after the election, Papadopoulos had said a renewed mandate for him would ensure an improved agreement that Cypriots could embrace.
"Today, Cyprus is stronger than ever before," he said 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 U.N. plan, its rejection by Greek Cypriots in separate referendums meant the island joined the European Union that year still divided.
Some 516,000 voters, including 390 Turkish Cypriots living in the south, were registered to vote. Voter turnout was more than 89%, election authorities said. Voting is compulsory in Cyprus.
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