Cypriots began voting for a new parliament Sunday in elections seen as an important measure of support for leftist President Dimitris Christofias’ handling of slow-moving talks with breakaway Turkish Cypriots to reunify the ethnically divided island.
Polls opened at 0400 GMT and were due to close at 1530 GMT. Results were expected by 2000 GMT.
Some 530,000 voters in the south are eligible to cast their ballots. Opinion polls also more people than usual will choose not to vote following a campaign that revolved more around partisanship rather than the issues.
The polls were seen rather as a test of public opinion on the governing coalition led by communist-backed President Demetris Christofias and his policy on reunification talks with the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.
Christofias is to meet Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu in Geneva on July 7 for talks hosted by Ban that had originally been scheduled for April.
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