Communist wins Cyprus presidential vote

(AFP) - Communist party chief Demetris Christofias won the presidential election in Cyprus on Sunday and immediately agreed to talks with the rival Turkish Cypriot leader in a new bid to reunify the island.
His jubilant supporters -- some in luxury convertibles -- cruised the streets of Nicosia, the world's last divided capital, waving Cypriot and banners of communist icon Che Guevara, their car horns blaring.
Greek Cypriot parliament speaker Christofias, 61, secured 53.36 percent of the vote against 46.64 percent for conservative former foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides in an election billed by the local media as one of the most crucial in the history of Cyprus.
"Tomorrow is a new day and there will be many difficulties before us, we need to gather our strength to achieve the reunification of our homeland," said Christofias, who is due to be sworn in later this week.
Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, head of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, called Christofias and the two have agreed to meet, an aide to Talat told AFP.
"Talat congratulated Christofias and both of them agreed that they should meet," the official said.
Christofias pledged during the election campaign to renew contacts with the Turkish Cypriots in a bid to end the partition of the strategic eastern Mediterranean island after negotiations stalled under outgoing president Tassos Papadopoulos.
Christofias becomes the European Union's sole communist head of state and his victory makes Cyprus the only European country with a communist president apart from ex-Soviet Moldova -- over 16 years after the Soviet Union collapsed.
The island's continued division has been a key stumbling block in Turkey's own efforts to join the EU.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since Turkish troops invaded in 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at union with Greece. A UN peacekeeping force has been deployed on the island since communal unrest first broke in 1963.
Kasoulides, a 59-year-old MEP who won the first round a week ago when voters dumped Papadopoulos, pledged to work with his rival in efforts to solve the Cyprus problem.
Christofias -- whose AKEL party has close ties to Moscow -- was barely 1,000 votes behind Kasoulides in the first round, but on Sunday beat him by more than 33,000 votes after winning the endorsement of three smaller parties that had backed Papadopoulos.
Local media reported that Christofias had promised the centre-right DIKO party of Papadopoulos three ministries including the foreign affairs portfolio and the socialist EDEK party two.
The deal could limit his freedom of manoeuvre on the Cyprus problem as the two centre parties historically take a far less flexible approach than either AKEL or the right-wing DISY.
"I hope he will be the man to solve Cyprus' problems but it will be more difficult now because of the promises he has made to other parties to win their support," said student George Xinisteris, 21.
There is also concern over how he will handle the economy as AKEL is not known for its love of the free market or as a convert to globalisation. It has a Eurosceptic tendency and is wary of NATO, but Christofias has rejected claims he is anti-European, and insisted he will not nationalise the economy or discard any international agreements.
Cyprus has no post of prime minister and executive power rests essentially with the president who is elected for a five-year term.
The international community hoped that the ouster of Papadopoulos would lead to a revival of efforts to reunite the island after his hardline policies led to stalemate. He last met Talat in September but their talks went nowhere.
He led Greek Cypriots in voting down a UN reunification plan that was overwhelmingly endorsed by Turkish Cypriots in referendums in April 2004. One month later a divided island joined the European Union and on January 1 Cyprus entered the eurozone.
About half a million Greek Cypriots were eligible to vote, along with some 400 Turkish Cypriots living in the government-run south of the island.
Cyprus hosts two large British military bases that house a string of super-sensitive listening posts that provide Western powers with intelligence on the Middle East and the former Soviet Union.


by Charlie Charalambous