News from Cyprus

Sunday, January 13

SUNDAY MAIL

Kasoulides takes lead in latest poll

DISY presidential candidate Ioannis Kasoulides has overtaken Papadopoulos in the polls, according to the latest one published today in Politis. Although Papadopoulos regained half a percentage point since the December poll, bringing him up to 30.3 per cent, Kasoulides has gained three points in a month and now stands at 30.5 per cent, according to the Noverna poll. According to the Politis poll, in June Kasoulides was polling at only 26.2 per cent but has been increasing steadily and in December polled 27.3 per cent. Papadopoulos had been showing 31.2 per cent in June but by December had slipped for the second month in a row to 29.8 per cent. Meanwhile AKEL candidate Demetris Christofias, who was also showing steady increases since June when he was at only 23.1 per cent, has slipped slightly since December when he was polling with 29.5 per cent. Today’s results give Christofias 29.1 per cent. Previous Noverna polls have shown that both Kasoulides and Christofias are far more popular with the 18-24 age group of voters than Papadopoulos. Some 15,000 of those due to vote in the elections will be first-time voters. But according to today’s poll, Kasoulides owes his sudden surge to women voters. The results show that since December his popularity with women has risen from 24 per cent to 27 per cent, while his popularity among men increased from 31 per cent to 32 per cent. Another surprise in the Politis poll was maverick politician and MEP Marios Matsakis, a latecomer to the race who only announced on Christmas Eve that he would be running for President. He bills himself as the only candidate that “tells it like it is”. In his first poll, Matsakis, as an independent, pulled a respectable 2.2 per cent compared to Costas Themistocleous who has been in the race since the beginning. Themistocleous polled only 0.1 per cent in today’s poll while 7.8 per cent of voters said they were still undecided.