Voting for the election of the eighth President of the Republic of Cyprus for the next five years began at 07:00.
As stated by the General Electoral Commissioner Kypros Kyprianou, the voting is conducted smoothly and absolute order and calm prevail everywhere.
He added that the polls opened at 07:00 in the polling stations operating in Greece and Bulgaria.
Voting will be suspended at 12 noon for one hour.
Polls will close at six in the afternoon and can be extended to nine if needed.
The voting hours in the polling stations abroad have been adjusted, so that the polls close at the same time as the voting in Cyprus ends.
The sorting and counting of votes will take place on the spot, at the same polling stations, immediately after the end of the voting.
With the closing of the polls, the results of the exit poll will be announced.
Around 18:30 the first results from the small polling stations will be announced.
The final result is expected around 20:30.
Candidates are Nikos Anastasiadis, current President of the Republic, Nikolas Papadopoulos, Stavros Malas, George Lillikas, Christos Christou, Andreas Efstratiou, Michalis Mina, Haris Aristidou and Christakis Kapiliotis.
An OSCE team is monitoring the elections
The presidential elections are also monitored by a branch of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, according to the general election commissioner Kypros Kyprianou. The subject of the observers' investigation, said Mr. Kyprianou, will be the amount of expenses incurred by the candidates during the election campaign.
He also said that the voting is taking place under the watchful eye of the Personal Data Commissioner and called on all those involved in the elections to strictly enforce the law.
Source: RIK, Radio
Source: RIK News