Yet another poll ahead of the presidential elections this month projects that President Nicos Anastasiades will bag a second term in office with a comfortable lead against rival Diko leader Nicolas Papadopoulos, who is neck and neck with Akel-backed candidate Stavros Malas.
The poll, commissioned by the Ant1 television channel, was carried out by CMRC Cypronetwork between January 5 – 14, and its results were broadcast on Friday night.
They revealed that 1021 participants showed Anastasiades garnering 30.2 per cent of the votes – up 4.4 per cent since November – and Papadopoulos receiving 21.4 per cent, up a smaller 1.7 per cent.
Malas lags just behind with 20 per cent support, up almost twice as much as Papadopoulos, however, by three per cent since November when he had 17 per cent support.
Citizens’ Alliance leader Giorgos Lillikas saw his share fall by almost half from four per cent in November to 2.4 per cent this month.
Elam’s Christos Christou was projected to win 3.6 per cent of votes, showing no change over the past two months.
In the second round, if Anastasiades is battling Papadopoulos for the seat, the incumbent would win with 35.3 per cent of the vote while Papadopoulos would get 30.6 per cent.
Akel voters would overwhelmingly support Papadopoulos by 44.4 per cent while 7.7 per cent said they would vote for Anastasiades if they had to pick between the two.
If Malas makes it to the second round with Anastasiades, the poll projects the current president will win with 38.6 per cent while the Akel-backed hopeful will receive 27 per cent of the votes.
The incumbent would receive 39.4 per cent of Diko’s votes, 25 per cent from the Green Party, 22.2 per cent from Solidarity and 14.3 per cent from Edek.
Malas would have 62.5 per cent of support from the Green Party, 45.7 per cent from Edek, 44.4 from Solidarity and 26 per cent from Diko.
Just over half of the participants said they will certainly vote – 51 per cent – up from 44.4 of those asked in November.
The poll revealed an increasing interest in the presidential elections with 18.6 per cent of respondents saying they were interested, 17.9 per cent very interested but 22.9 per cent having no interest whatsoever.
Top priorities for voters are health, economic development and education, the poll revealed, while the Cyprus problem is becoming increasingly important.
A whopping 73 per cent said they did not know the positions of the candidates while those that did (27 per cent) were more aware of those of Anastasiades with 61.6 per cent. A 54 per cent said they knew Papadopoulos’ positions, 52.5 per cent were aware of Malas’, 32.2 of Lillikas’ and 26.4 of Christou’s.
A survey released by Cybc earlier this week showed Anastasiades winning a second term in office with a 27 per cent vote of support from 1010 respondents.
Contrary to the Ant1 survey, the poll projected Malas coming in second place with 16 percent followed by Papadopoulos with 14 per cent.
