‘Gaffe’ on interior ministry’s website shows test image with ‘official’ election results

A gaffe on the interior ministry’s website showed the ‘official results’ of the first round of presidential elections in 2018, when a picture, meant to be a test image depicting the outcome from 2013 when Nicos Anastasiades was elected was circulated on the web.

According to statements from the chief returning officer on Saturday, the image that was circulated was a test made by the company working with the television stations in Cyprus to present the results next Sunday.

Specifically, the image that circulated on the internet with the ministry’s logo and the title ‘Official Results’ showed Nicos Anastasiades leading in the first round with 45.46 per cent of the vote, Akel-backed Stavros Malas second with 26.91 per cent, Diko’s Nicolas Papadopoulos with 24.93 per centre, Citizens Alliance’s Giorgos Lillikas with 1.92 per cent, Elam’s Christos Christou with 0.29 per cent, Andreas Efstratiou with 0.18 per cent, Charis Aristidou with 0.16 per cent, Christakis Kapiliotis with 0.10 per cent, and Michalis Mina with 0.05 per cent.

The statement from the chief returning officer noted that “his office and the interior ministry has in nothing to do with the issue,” of the image that was circulated on the internet depicting the names and images of the current candidates.

“The specific image was wrongly used, with logos from the interior ministry and references to ‘official results’, even if results from the 2013 presidential elections were used,” the statement from the chief returning officer said.

Once he noticed the image, the statement said, he contacted the company and ordered them to take it down, and to continue their testing with the television stations without the use of the data in the image.

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.