Roundup: Anastasiades scores wide victory in Cyprus presidential runoff

NICOSIA, Feb 24, 2013 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Cyprus right-wing politician Nicos Anastasiades will be the next president of the eastern Mediterranean island following a runoff presidential election on Sunday.

Anastasiades got 57.48 percent of the vote and his leftist election rival Stavros Malas got 42.52 percent of vote, according to final election results.

Abstention in Sunday's election stood at 18.42 percent from the total 545,493 eligible voters, somewhat higher than abstention in the first round, but invalid and blank ballot papers went up more than three times to about 7.4 percent of the votes cast, reflecting rejection of both candidates by a large section of the electorate.

After final elections results were announced, Malas said he telephoned Anastasiades and congratulated him on his electoral success.

He said he will support all policies by Anastasiades which he will consider to be beneficial for the country.

Anastasiades was also congratulated by outgoing President Demetris Christofias and Antonis Samaras, Prime Minister of Greece, Cyprus's closest supporter.

Thousands of Anastasiades supporters gathered outside his Democratic Rally party headquarters to celebrate his electoral success. Many more thousands will pack the premises of a basketball field where he will be officially declared as the president-elect at about 10 p.m. (2000 GMT).

His press spokesman said the next president will address an invitation to all political forces to come forth and take part in a national salvation government.

Anastasiades, who was backed by the central Democratic Party, will officially take office on March 1.

He will be burdened with the nightmarish task running an almost broke government, following mismanagement of the economy by the outgoing government of Christofias.

The island's situation was further worsened because of heavy losses by the island's main banks on account of their holding large amounts of devalued Greek bonds.

Anastasiades is in favor of quickly concluding a bailout deal provisionally agreed between Christofias's government and the troika, namely the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The bailout memorandum is in limbo, pending establishment of the needs of the banks in recapitalization funds. However a provisional bailout sum of up to 17.5 billion euros -- equal to the island's GDP -- which will render the sovereign debt unmanageable.

Anastasiades has said he has made arrangements to obtain what he called a bridge loan from unspecified sources, to give him a breathing space of up to two months so he can negotiate a more favorable deal with international lenders.

A final bailout deal is held up by objections from German politicians, who are locked in an election campaign for a vote to be held in the autumn. They are demanding more concessions by Cyprus, including increasing a 10 percent corporate tax and submitting to a survey of its anti-money laundering practices.

They express reservations on a Cyprus bailout, claiming that German taxpayer's money may end up safeguarding fat bank deposits by Russian plutocrats.

[ Back To Technology News's Homepage ]