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The presidential election campaign in Cyprus took an interesting turn Feb. 18 when incumbent Tassos Papadopoulos lost by a narrow margin to two opponents in the first round of voting. Former Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides and Progressive Party of the Working People chief Demetris Christofias now will contend for votes in the Feb. 24 election. Because Papadopoulos acted decisively in urging Cypriots to reject the U.N. reunification plan in 2004, his election loss seems to offer new prospects for the reunification of the island’s Turkish North and Greek South, which have been divided since 1974. But these prospects will remain in limbo until after elections and the new president’s inauguration.
Both the right-wing Kasoulides and the communist Christofias are in favor of resuming talks with the North on reunification for the first time since the 2004 referendum, which the Turks approved and the Greeks rejected. Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ferdi Sabit Soyer has said the two candidates’ victory over Papadopoulos suggests that the public has turned at least marginally away from the president’s stern rejection of reconciliation.
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