South Cyprus on Sunday voted Nikos Christodoulides as its eighth president, defeating his rival, Andreas Mavroyannis in a close run-off.

Christodulides will be serving as the Greek Cypriot leader for the next five years.

Nikos Christodoulides, aged 49, secured 51.97 per cent of the vote on Sunday’s second round beating his rival Akel’s Andreas Mavroyannis who recieved 48.08 per cent.

The president-elect secured 204,867 votes, beating his rival Andreas Mavroyiannis who trailed close behind with 189,335 votes in his favour.

Turnout at Sunday’s election stood at 72.45 per cent with only 406,626 of the 561,273 eligible voters casting their vote.

A little over 8000 votes were declared invalid while 3,979 votes cast were empty.