Ex-foreign minister will face diplomat for Cyprus presidency

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
Associated Press

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Official voting results show that a center-right former foreign minister and a career diplomat backed by a communist-rooted party appear poised to battle it out for the presidency of ethnically divided Cyprus in a Feb. 12 runoff. With 100% of votes counted in the first round of the presidential race, Nikos Christodoulides, 49, the country’s former top diplomat, had garnered 32% of the vote. He’ll head to a runoff against Andreas Mavroyiannis, 66, who had 29.6%. Averof Neophytou, 61, the leader of Democratic Rally, the country’s largest political party, trailed Mavroyiannis by 3.5 percentage points, despite earlier opinion polls putting him in the second spot.