Cyprus president re-elected, defeats same opponent again

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades was re-elected by a wide margin Sunday after defeating left-leaning challenger Stavros Malas in a runoff election for the second time in a row.

State-run broadcaster RIK said Malas telephoned Anastasiades to concede defeat about an hour after polls closed, when half of the ballots had been counted and Malas trailed badly.

Anastasiades had 56 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for Malas, in the final returns.

It’s the second consecutive time that Anastasiades, 71, a conservative veteran politician, won a head-to-head contest with Malas, 50, for the ethnically divided island’s presidency.

Malas campaigned as the candidate who would bring change to a tired political system that short-changes ordinary Cypriots, who have seen salaries and benefits slashed in the wake of a near economic meltdown.

But voters appeared to heed the incumbent’s campaign message, which blamed the left-wing economic policies of previous administrations for bringing Cyprus near bankruptcy.

Anastasiades said he would use his experience to keep the economy growing and to continue pursuing a reunification deal with the nation’s breakaway Turkish Cypriots.

Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and keeps more than 35,000 troops in the north.

Voters remain skeptical about whether a reunification deal can be reached any time soon. The latest round of talks at a Swiss resort in July collapsed amid finger-pointing about who was responsible for the failure.

The latest setback was the revelation last week that the Turkish Cypriots have withdrawn a proposed map that outlined how much territory they would be willing to cede to Greek Cypriots as part of an envisioned two-zone federation.

Greek Cypriots also submitted a map. Anastasiades hailed the exchange as a breakthrough in decades of failed peace talks, indicative of just how much process had been achieved.

One of the president’s first orders of business will be to oversee ongoing exploratory drilling for gas off the island’s southern coast.

Italian energy company ENI is currently drilling an exploratory well and Cypriot Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said indications of another find are “very encouraging.”

The hydrocarbon search undergirds alliances Cyprus has forged with Egypt and Israel, which have located their own sizeable offshore gas reserves.

The exploration has raised the ire of Turkey, which has characterized the work as an attempt to cheat Turkish Cypriots. .

Results showed that 74 percent of eligible voters cast ballots Sunday, slightly more than the first round of voting last week, but 7 percent less than in the 2013 election.

Anastasiades has said a second term would be his last.