Nicosia - Greek Cypriots began casting their ballots to vote for a new president Sunday in elections, with both candidates saying they wanted to relaunch stalled peace talks on the divided Mediterranean island. The runoff elections will be a close race between Communist Party Leader Demetrios Christofias, 61, and right-winger Ioannis Kasoulides of the conservative DISY.
Polling stations opened at 0700 (0500 GMT) and voting was going smoothly, according to Chief Election Official Lazaros Savvides. Final results are expected by 1930 (1730 GMT).
The two candidates were within fractions of a percentage point in the February 17 first round, which unexpectedly knocked out incumbent Tassos Papadopoulos who opposed a 2004 UN plan to reunify the Mediterranean island.
Turkish Cypriots voted in favour of the UN plan, but both candidates say the Annan plan cannot be revised because of the large majority, 76 per cent, Greek Cypriots that rejected it.
Although from different sides of the political spectrum, the two candidates, Kasoulides and Christofias have both pledged to immediately pursue peace talks with Turkish Cypriots on the ethnically divided island.
Kasoulides has said he prefers a more direct approach with Turkish Cypriots, says that he will travel to northern Cyprus on Monday for a face-to-face meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat if he is elected.
His rival, Soviet-educated communist candidate Christofias said he would also meet with Talat but added that the meeting would be arranged through the UN.
"I do not think Mr Kasoulides or myself have the magic formula to break the deadlock," Christofias said in a televised debate on Friday.
"But I have the goodwill to move forward to try to find a settlement. It is an absolute necessity."
Christofias has the upper edge in the runoff, having gained the support of the Democratic Party, the largest of five parties that had supported Papadopoulos' failed re-election bid.
If he wins he will be the only communist EU head of state and despite his party's Leninist roots he has assured business investors that he will leave the market alone.
The elections come just as UN mediators are planning a last shot at a peace plan intended to mend the divisions between Greek and Turkish Cypriots on opposite sides of a ceasefire line that has split the island for the past 35 years.
The north has been isolated since Turkey invaded the northern third of the island in 1974 where Ankara maintains 30,000 troops there.
The ongoing conflict has been a thorn in relations between NATO allies Greece and Turkey and has served as an obstacle to Turkey's efforts to join the European Union.
Some 516,000 voters, including 390 Turkish Cypriots living in the south, are registered to vote.
The president is elected for a five-year term and is the head of the Cypriot government.
