THE PRESIDENTIAL elections will see a ‘Battle of the Generations’ since the young (aged between 18 and 34) prefer DISY candidate Ioannis Kasoulides and the old (aged 55 and above) will vote for DIKO candidate President Tassos Papadopoulos.
This is one of the most important conclusions to be drawn from the RAI poll broadcast on MEGA TV channel last night.
The poll was conducted over the phone between January 28 and February 1, using a population sample of 1,495 people across Cyprus.
The margin of statistical error lies at 2.4 per cent.
The younger voters prefer Kasoulides (31.5 per cent), followed by AKEL candidate Demetris Christofias (28.5 per cent) and Papadopoulos (25.7 per cent).
Middle aged voters are evenly split between the three main candidates, with Christofias at 31.5 per cent, followed by Kasoulides at 31 per cent and Papadopoulos with 30 per cent.
The older voters show a clear preference for Papadopoulos (39 per cent), followed by Christofias (30 per cent) and Kasoulides further behind (27.5 per cent).
The first round results predict what most other polls have so far concluded: Papadopoulos will be the first through to the second round, where he will be joined by Christofias, while Kasoulides will be left out.
Specifically, Papadopoulos is ahead with 32.6 per cent, followed by Christofias with 30.2 per cent and Kasoulides with 29.6 per cent.
MEP Marios Matsakis wins 0.7 per cent of the vote and independent Costas Themistocleous 0.1 per cent.
Together, the remaining four independent candidates poll 0.4 per cent.
An accrued total of 6.4 per cent either declined to answer (3.5 per cent) or said that they would not vote or would cast a blank vote (2.9 per cent).
Papadopoulos wins 82 per cent of DIKO voters, 70 and 69 per cent from European Party and EDEK voters respectively, while he also gains a tenth from each of the big party voters (11 per cent from DISY and 10 per cent from AKEL).
Christofias wins 87 per cent from AKEL as well as a fifth of EDEK voters (19 per cent), while he only wins single figure percentages from the rest of the parties: seven per cent from DIKO, three per cent from DISY and two per cent from the European party.
Kasoulides wins 81 per cent of DISY voters and 14 per cent from the European party, as well as 10 per cent from EDEK.
He only gains six per cent of DIKO voters and one per cent of AKEL.
A second round thriller is in store only if the first round predictions materialise and Papadopoulos clashes with Christofias for the Presidency.
In this case, Papadopoulos wins 41.5 per cent and Christofias 41.3 per cent, while 17.2 per cent said they would either not vote/cast a blank vote/did not answer the question.
Papadopoulos has a clear lead over Kasoulides in a second round head to head (46.1 per cent against 37.2 per cent), while there is again a high percentage of voters who opt out (16.7 per cent).
In a run-off between the candidates of the two largest parties, Christofias is ahead with 41.2 per cent against Kasoulides’ 38.7 per cent.
One fifth of the RAI sample (20.1 per cent) said they would either not vote or cast a blank vote or did not answer the question.
