CYPRUS: Greek Cypriot opposition leader Mr Tassos Papadopoulos won a surprise victory yesterday in the island's presidential election.
To win he needed 50 per cent plus one vote; the voters gave him 51.5 per cent. The incumbent, Mr Glafkos Clerides (84), trailed behind by 13 per cent, in keeping with the deficit predicted by pre-election public opinion surveys.
Mr Papadopoulos (69), who heads the centre right Democratic Party and enjoys the support of the former Communist Akel Party and the small Socialist Party, will assume office on February 28th. This was the deadline set for Greek and Turkish Cypriot acceptance of a UN proposal for the reunification of the island.
Mr Papadopoulos, whose thinking reflects the sentiments of a majority of Greek Cypriots, has called for major revisions in the proposal.
While this has prompted Western powers pressing the Greek Cypriot side for concessions to label him a "hardliner", Mr Papadopoulos' main strength comes from Akel, which enjoys the support of 33 per cent of the electorate and strongly supports reconciliation with the Turkish Cypriots and a settlement.
Greek Cypriots say Mr Clerides lost because he failed to resolve the Cyprus problem during his two five-year terms and they want a change. The change is hardly dramatic. Mr Papadopoulos belongs to the "old guard" of independence era politicians.
A lawyer, he has had a long career in politics. He was the youngest minister in both the post-colonial transitional administration and the first Cyprus government where he held the interior and labour portfolios.
His first act as president-elect was to ask Mr Clerides to assist in negotiations with the Turkish Cypriots to ensure continuity between the outgoing and incoming administrations.
Mr Clerides' defeat 12 days before the deadline means there is unlikely to be progress in negotiations before Mr Papadopoulos settles into office. Mr Clerides indicated that he would accept the plan, put forward by the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, last November if the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Rauf Denktash, did so.
But Mr Denktash continued to call for international recognition of his breakaway state and rejected main provisions of the plan, including the reduction of the Turkish Cypriot controlled area from 37 to 28.5 per cent of the island. Consequently, last ditch negotiations between Mr Clerides and Mr Denktash made little headway. Last Friday Mr Denktash stated flatly: "We cannot achieve anything by the 28th . . . There are blank pages in the plan which need to be filled. These pages mean laws, the constitution.There is a lot to be done. From the beginning, the 28th was never a realistic date."
In spite of Mr Denktash's pronouncement, the UN special envoy, Mr Alvaro de Soto, warned that failure to reach a settlement by the deadline meant "it will not be possible for a united Cyprus to sign the [European Union] treaty of accession on April 16th." He asserted: "That is the importance of the deadline . . . everything changes after April 16th, and the opportunity that has existed until now disappears . . ." Indeed, the Turkish Cypriot bid for separate accession talks could be delayed until December 2004 when Ankara receives a date for its negotiations. By then, the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot majority republic will be a member of the European bloc.
Mr Annan is due to visit Athens, Ankara and Nicosia at the end of the month to press the parties to reach an accommodation. There has been speculation that Mr Annan could submit a third and final, non-negotiable version of his plan but since Mr Clerides is now a lame duck, analysts contend there is little point in trying to reach a settlement with him.
Cypriots celebrated last night with street processions and rallies where Cypriot and EU flags were displayed. But the blue and white Greek flag was not to be seen. This should reassure Turkish Cypriots that the focus of the new president is Cyprus, not the Greek Cypriot connection with mother Greece. Since voting is compulsory, about 80 per cent of the 476,000 voters cast their ballots yesterday.
