| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
|
This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Cyprus |
---|
The Cypriot presidential election of 2008 was held on 17 February 2008, with the runoff held on 24 February 2008. [1] The second-round winner, and thus the President of Cyprus for the next term, was Dimitris Christofias. [2] [3]
The first round, held on February 17, saw a close result between three leading candidates, Dimitris Christofias of AKEL, Ioannis Kasoulidis of Democratic Rally, and the incumbent Tassos Papadopoulos. Results showed Kasoulidis in first place with about 33.51%, Christofias in second with 33.29%, and Papadopoulos in third with 31.79%. Christophias and Kasoulidis therefore participated in a second round on February 24. The elimination of Papadopoulos in the first round was viewed as surprising. [1]
Ioannis Kasoulides is a Cypriot politician, party member of DISY, who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus from 1997 until 2003, and again from 2013 to 2018. He was member of the European Parliament from 2004 until 2013. He has held a number of political posts in Cyprus, including member of the House of Representatives of Cyprus from 1991 until 1993, and government spokesman from 1993 until 1997.
The Democratic Rally, is a conservative, Christian-democratic political party in Cyprus led by Averof Neofytou. The party was founded on 4 July 1976 by veteran politician Glafcos Clerides. Clerides served as the president of Cyprus from 1993 until 2003.
Efstathios "Tassos" Nikolaou Papadopoulos was a Cypriot politician and barrister who served as the fifth President of Cyprus from February 28, 2003 to February 28, 2008.
In the second round, Christofias won with 53.37% against 46.63% for Kasoulides. [3] He was sworn in as President on February 28. [4]
According to the exit-polls, Papadopoulos was voted by 40% of "No" voters in the Annan referendum and 5% of the "Yes". Christofias by 35% of the "No" and 34% of the "Yes" voters and Kasoulidis by the 24% of the "No" and 62% of the "Yes" voters. [5]
Papadopoulos (DIKO) announced in late July that he would run for re-election. In early July 2007, the ruling coalition (consisting of DIKO, AKEL and EDEK) fell apart due to a lack of consensus on a common candidate for the presidential elections; AKEL general secretary Dimitris Christofias was proposed as a common candidate by AKEL, but rejected by DIKO and EDEK (who both will support Papadopoulos' bid for reelection), which AKEL took as a reason to leave the ruling coalition. Thus both Papadopoulos and Christophias contested the election. [6]
The Democratic Party is a Greek-Cypriot nationalist, centrist political party in Cyprus founded in 1976 by Spyros Kyprianou.
The Progressive Party of Working People is a Marxist–Leninist, communist political party in Cyprus.
The Movement for Social Democracy is a Greek Cypriot nationalist, social-democratic political party in Cyprus.
Furthermore, the Democratic Rally support MEP Ioannis Kasoulidis, a former foreign minister, [7] and Kostas Themistokleous, a former minister of agriculture and environment, also contested the election.
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
Controversial MEP Marios Matsakis announced on 29 December 2007 that he would contest the election. Marios Matsakis was elected two times as a member of the Cypriot parliament and once as member of the Εuropean Parliament with the support of DIKO. [8]
The Secretariat of the Movement of the United Democrats initially considered to support Themistokleous [9] but at the end they supported Christophias to minimize the possibility of Papadopoulos' re-election. [10]
The Ecological and Environmental Movement (KOP) decided on November 18, 2007 to support Papadopoulos. [11] The movement supported him in 2003 as well.
After the first round of the election and the elimination of Papadopoulos, the latter's party, DIKO, announced its support for Christofias [12] although Papadopoulos himself stayed neutral.[ citation needed ] Christofias had offered three ministerial positions to DIKO, including that of Minister of Foreign Affairs, in addition to the post of President of the House of Representatives, while Kasoulides had offered five ministerial positions in exchange for DIKO's support. [12] EDEK also backed Christofias, on the proposal of its Political Bureau, with 109 members of its Central Committee voting in favor of supporting Christofias, five voting against, and two abstaining. [13] The Cypriot Orthodox Church leader Archbishop Chrysostomos II backed Kasoulidis. [12]
Ecological and Environmental Movement on 21 February 2008 decided to support Dimitris Christofias.
Evroko, ADIK and Marios Matsakis announced that they will support neither of the two candidates.
Kostas Themistokleous backed Ioannis Kasoulidis.
Nine candidates were approved to participate in the elections. Each candidate had to be recommended by one Cypriot citizen and supported by eight more.
The names of the candidates announced on 18 January 2008 [14] were:
Candidates and nominating parties | 1st round | 2nd round | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | ||
Dimitris Christofias | 150,016 | 33.29 | 240,604 | 53.37 | |
Ioannis Kasoulidis | 150,996 | 33.51 | 210,195 | 46.63 | |
Tassos Papadopoulos | 143,249 | 31.79 | |||
Marios Matsakis | 3,460 | 0.77 | |||
Kostas Kyriacou | 1,092 | 0.24 | |||
Kostas Themistocleous | 753 | 0.17 | |||
Andreas Efstratiou | 713 | 0.16 | |||
Christodoulos Neophytou | 243 | 0.05 | |||
Anastasis Michael | 117 | 0.03 | |||
Valid votes | 450,639 | 100.00 | 450,799 | 100.00 | |
Blank votes | 4,410 | 0.95 | 7,768 | 1.66 | |
Invalid votes | 7,798 | 1.68 | 10,576 | 2.25 | |
Turnout (out of 516,441 registered votes) | 462,847 | 89.62 | 469,143 | 90.84 | |
Source: results.elections.moi.gov.cy (first round and second round) |
On 26 January 2008 the three main candidates, Papadopoulos, Christofias, and Kasoulidis, debated on television. The debate was transmitted by all Cypriot TV stations. [21] [22] The three candidates were questioned by journalists from RIK, MEGA, ANT1, Sigma TV and CNC Plus TV. The debate started at 9.45PM local time and lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes. Each candidate had three minutes to answer each question and 1.5 minute for every follow-up question. The procedure was divided in 6 sections and, at the end of each section, each candidate had 3 minutes to give a short speech and 1.5 minute for a short comment. [23]
On 14 February, a second debate was held. The subject of discussion was the Cyprus dispute. [24]
A collection of opinion polls taken before the elections is listed below. Beginning on 11 February 2008, no opinion poll is allowed to be published. [25]
Polling Firm | Source | Date Published | T. Papadopoulos | D. Christofias | I. Kasoulidis | K. Themistokleous | M. Matsakis |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Symmetron | [26] | 3 October 2007 | 32.9% | 27.5% | 27.6% | 0.4% | |
RAI Consultants | [27] | 18 November 2007 | 33.0% | 28.5% | 27.8% | 0.4% | |
Public Isuue PIK | [28] | 21 November 2007 | 31% | 30% | 29% | 1% | |
Noverna | [29] | 22 November 2007 | 30.1% | 28.4% | 27.1% | 1.2% | |
RAI Consultants | [30] | 25 December 2007 | 32.7% | 28.7% | 26.2% | 1.2% | |
Noverna | [31] | 17 January 2008 | 30.3% | 29.1% | 30.5% | 0.1% | 2.2% |
Noverna | [32] | 23 January 2008 | 30.5% | 30.0% | 30.1% | 0.3% | 2.2% |
Public Issue-RIK | [33] | 7 February 2008 | 34.0% | 33.5% | 30.5% | 0.1% | 2.0% |
The United Democrats is a liberal political party in Cyprus. The party was founded by former President of Cyprus George Vasiliou in 1993 as Kinima Eleftheron Dimokraton. The party later merged with ADISOK to form United Democrats. The party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and observer of the Liberal International.
Elections in Cyprus gives information on election and election results in Cyprus.
Demetris Christofias, also spelled Dimitris Christofias, is a Cypriot former politician who was the sixth President of Cyprus from 2008 to 2013. Christofias was the General Secretary of AKEL, the Communist Party of Cyprus, and was the European Union's and Cyprus' first, and so far only, Communist head of state. He won the 2008 Cypriot presidential elections in the second round of voting. Throughout the election campaign, he pledged to restart talks with Turkish Cypriots in order to find a solution to the Cyprus dispute and reunify the island. He has also supported the closure of the British military bases on Cyprus.
Presidential elections were held in Cyprus on 16 February 2003. The election was dominated by the ongoing negotiations over the Annan Plan for Cyprus. Incumbent President Glafkos Klerides was largely in favour of the plan, while leading opposition candidate Tassos Papadopoulos wanted substantial amendments before he would accept it. Papadopoulos won the election in the first round after winning over 51% of the vote. Voter turnout was 90.5%.
Marios Garoyian is a Cypriot politician. He served as leader of the Democratic Party from 2006 to 2013.
Alexis Galanos is a Greek Cypriot politician. He was President of the House of Representatives of Cyprus from 1991 to 1996. He studied Economics at King's College, Cambridge and Law at Inner Temple.
Anafotia is a village located in the Larnaca District of Cyprus, west of Larnaca. In 1994, the official name of the village became Anafotida (Aναφωτίδα), following a decision by the then-government of Cyprus to make the names of villages on the island more Greek. However, locally the village is still referred to as Anafotia.
Parliamentary elections were held in Cyprus on 22 May 2011 to elect the 56 Members of the House of Representatives. They were won by the Democratic Rally, who increased their seats from 18 to 20. The governing Progressive Party of Working People also gained a seat, bringing them up to 19. The Democratic Party lost two of their 11 seats and the European Party lost one of their three seats. The Movement for Social Democracy held on to their five seats.
Akis Cleanthous was a Cypriot politician and financial analyst. Cleanhous served as the chairman of the Cyprus Stock Exchange from 2003 to 2007 and Minister of Education and Culture from 2007 until 2008. He was a member of the Democratic Party (DIKO), a center-right political party.
Presidential elections were held in Cyprus on 17 February 2013. A runoff was held on 24 February 2013. Nicos Anastasiades of Democratic Rally won the election. The other candidates were Stavros Malas of the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL); Praxoula Antoniadou of the United Democrats; Lakis Ioannou with the support of LASOK; Loukas Stavrou; ELAM's Giorgos Charalambous, Giorgos Lillikas of Movement for Social Democracy (EDEK); and independents Andreas Efstratiou, Makaria-Andri Stylianou, Kostas Kyriacou(Outopos) and Solon Gregoriou. Although the president Demetris Christofias was not term-limited, he did not seek re-election in 2013.
Cyprus's component of the 2014 European Parliament election was held on Sunday, 25 May 2014.
Nikolas Papadopoulos is a Greek Cypriot lawyer and politician. He has been Member of Parliament for Nicosia since 2006 and leader of centrist DIKO party since 2013. Papadopoulos chairs the parliamentary committee on Finance and Budget. He is the son of President Tassos Papadopoulos.
Parliamentary elections were held in Cyprus on 22 May 2016 to elect 56 of the 80 Members of the House of Representatives.
Cypriot nationalism, also known as Cypriotism, refers to one of the nationalisms of Cyprus. It focuses on the shared identity of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, highlighting their common culture, heritage, traditions, and economic, political, and social rights. Cypriot nationalism, as a form of civic nationalism, supports the peaceful reunification of Cyprus and the end of interference of external powers in its domestic affairs. Some Cypriotists advocate a federal state, while others express a preference for a unitary state instead.
Presidential elections were held in Cyprus on 28 January 2018. As no candidate received a majority of the vote in the first round, a run-off was held on 4 February between the top two candidates, incumbent President Nicos Anastasiades of the Democratic Rally (DISY) and Stavros Malas of the Progressive Party of Working People. Anastasiades emerged as the winner with 55.99% of the vote.