Polls pour in but it’s still a tight call

THE INUNDATION of public opinion polls ahead of the election continued into this week, with Antenna TV publishing its own poll last night.

The poll was conducted by Evresis via telephone and surveyed a total of 2,130 people between mid-December and mid-January.

The poll’s findings regarding the willingness of Greek Cypriots to live together with their Turkish Cypriot counterparts were encouraging.

Whereas only half of those polled in May 2006 opted for cohabitation, 59.1 per cent were favourable this time round, with the number of people wanting to live apart also dropping from 46.7 per cent to 38.5 per cent.

In response to the question ‘Who would you vote for if we had elections next Sunday?’, President Tassos Papadopoulos was the most popular choice with 32.8 per cent, then AKEL candidate Demetris Christofias with 30.1 per cent, followed by DISY candidate Ioannis Kasoulides with 29.6 per cent.

In the second round, Kasoulides would lose to either of his two main rivals, while a head-to-head between Papadopoulos and Christofias would see both get 41.5 per cent of the vote. A significant 17 per cent said they would either cast an invalid ballot or did not answer the question.

When asked ‘Which party would you vote for if we had parliamentary elections next Sunday?’ AKEL and DISY each got 28.5 per cent, DIKO 19.2 per cent, EDEK 7.1 per cent and the European Party at 5.1 per cent.

On Tuesday Plus TV published a poll which had been conducted by GPO. Papadopoulos came first with 31.1 per cent, Christofias second with 30 per cent and Kasoulides third with 28 per cent.

This was preceded by two Sunday newspaper polls which differed significantly in their findings, provoking controversy.

Simerini’s poll, conducted by Insight Market Research, gave the lead to Papadopoulos with 32.5 percent, Christofias came second with 31.9 per cent and Kasoulides further behind with 28.1 per cent.

The Politis poll which was run by Noverna, showed inverted results.

Kasoulides came first with 30.5 per cent, Papadopoulos closely behind with 30.3 per cent and Christofias third with 29.1 per cent.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.