DISY yesterday looked like the winners of the European elections, in what was described as one of the lowest turnouts ever in a Cypriot election.
Exit polls broadcast on all channels at 8pm sharp, gave DISY approximately two per cent more votes than rivals AKEL.
Coalition parties DIKO and EDEK came third and second in the polls seemingly securing a seat each in the European Parliament, while experts estimated AKEL and DISY would secure two seats each.
Official results will be announced across Europe at around 11 pm tonight.
The CyBC’s poll saw DISY receive 35.5 per cent of the public’s vote, with AKEL trailing second with 33.7 per cent. DIKO got 13.6 per cent and EDEK 10.7 per cent.
EVROKO and the Green Party trailed behind with 3.6 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively, while independent candidates received just 0.7 per cent.
The results from remaining channels were roughly the same, with DISY receiving 38.2 per cent from ANT1, 34.5 per cent/36.5 per cent from Mega, 37.6 per cent from Sigma and 35.5/37.5 per cent from Plus TV.
AKEL got 36.9 per cent on ANT1, 33.5/35.5 per cent from Mega, 34.4 per cent from Sigma and 33.5/35.5 per cent from Plus TV.
According to the CyBC exit poll, the favourite candidates to win are Eleni Theocharous and Ioannis Kasoulides for DISY, as well as Takis Hadjigeorgiou and Skevi Koukouma-Koutra for AKEL. DIKO’s Antigoni Papadopoulou seemed like a dead cert, while Koullis Mavronicolas from EDEK seemed to have received the majority vote for his party.
Chief Returning Officer Lazaros Savvides expressed his disappointment at the low turn-out, which at the end of the election stood at only 41.12 per cent. He explained that the majority of abstainers were youths and Nicosia residents.
Clearly disappointed, the Head of the European Parliament Office in Cyprus, Tasos Georgiou, blamed the three-day Kataklysmos holiday and lack of a European agenda in the candidates’ pre-election campaign for the low turn-out.
“As European Parliament, we are especially saddened by the high percentage of abstention that has been noted in today’s election in Cyprus,” Georgiou said yesterday. “We feel that Cypriots who look to Europe to help them regarding the national issue and other matters should have voted en masse in today’s elections. Maybe the holiday is to blame; maybe the lack of a European agenda during the pre-election campaign. From Monday onwards, we will examine the reasons behind the abstentions so we can see what really was to blame.”
DISY currently holds the most seats in the European Parliament, with Ioannis Kasoulides, Yiannakis Matsis and Panayiotis Demetriou.
AKEL holds two seats with Adamos Adamou and Kyriacos Triantaphyllides. Then there is independent MEP Marios Matsakis.
