Exit polls in Cyprus's referendums indicate that Greek Cypriots have overwhelmingly rejected a UN plan to reunite the island while Turkish Cypriots have voted heavily in favour of it.
The polls on the south of the island said 78.5 per cent of Greek Cypriots had rejected the plan. A separate exit poll by Turkey's private CNN-Turk television found 61 per cent of Turkish Cypriots accepted the plan.
The exit poll of Greek Cypriot voting stations, carried out by Greece's Insight polling agency for Antennae TV, said only 31.5 per cent of Greek Cypriots had voted "yes". The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 1 to 3 percentage points.
Turkey's semi-official Anatolia Agency gave no details on the polling method, but said 61 per cent of Turkish Cypriots had voted "yes" in the north.
The exit polls were declared moments after polling stations closed across the island.
Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots were voting in separate referendums on whether to accept a plan by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that would reunify Cyprus after 30 years of division.
The international community has pushed hard for acceptance of the plan ahead of Cyprus' May 1st entry to the European Union.