Incumbent President Nicos Anastasiades was leading Cyprus's presidential election on Sunday, exit polls showed, but failed to clinch an outright majority which will lead to a runoff on Feb 4.
An exit poll for Cyprus's public broadcaster CyBC put Anastasiades in the lead with between 38 and 42 percent of the vote, followed by left-wing backed independent Stavros Malas who garnered between 27 and 31 percent of the vote.
Centrist Nikolas Papadopoulos was seen taking between 21.5 and 24.5 percent of the vote. The poll was based on an 80 percent sample.
Reunification prospects
As always, the nearly 44-year division of the island between the Greek Cypriot Administration, internationally recognized as the Republic of Cyprus, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus looms large.
Cyprus was split in a Turkish military intervention in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup, and the EU member state hosts one of the world's longest serving peacekeeping forces with Greek Cypriots in the south, and Turkish Cypriots in the north.
In July, two years of UN-backed talks between Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı came closer than ever to reunifying the island but collapsed in acrimony before a deal.
Despite the failure to bridge key issues, including the future of Turkish troops in the north, Anastasiades insists he wants talks with Akıncı to restart soon.
But there is deep skepticism over whether there is the political will to make a breakthrough.
At the only televised debate before the vote, opponents laid into Anastasiades for being either too pliant or not determined enough to reach a deal last year.
Signs are that the road to reunification will only get tougher as fatigue mounts after decades of failure.
Ultra-nationalist party ELAM - fiercely opposed to the proposed reunification -- is fielding a candidate for the first time.
In the north, parliamentary elections this month saw parties opposed to reunification perform strongly.
Economic focus
While the "national problem" is ever present, this time around the economy has been a dominant issue.
"The economy has featured more than the Cyprus problem in this campaign," Fiona Mullen, director of Nicosia-based Sapienta Economics, told AFP.
When Anastasiades took over, the banking sector was in meltdown and he took a 10-billion-euro (more than $12-billion) bailout that entailed biting austerity measures.
That included a drastic haircut on accounts of over 100,000 euros held in the country's biggest lender, Bank of Cyprus.
Since then the economy has rebounded faster than many expected and growth has been steady since 2015.
Tourism reached a record high last year and explorations are going on for oil and gas offshore.
But the economy is still smaller than it was before the crisis, unemployment is around 11 percent and banks are awash with bad loans.
"The recovery is relative," Mullen said.
