One of former foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides and diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis will become next Greek Cypriot leader in the runoff election next Sunday, February 12.

According to the official results, frontrunner Christodoulides secured 32.04% of the votes (127,305), while 117,627 people voted for Mavroyiannis who received 29.6% of the votes.

Ruling Disy backed Averof Neophytou came third with 103,755 votes and a percentage of 26.11%.

Christodoulides is the first candidate in the history of the South Cyprus who goes through to the runoff election without having the backing of one of the two largest parties, right-wing Disy and left-wing Akel.

Mavroyiannis’s showing defied opinion polls which had shown he would likely trail in third place and would be left out of the runoff. But he had the backing of Akel, which had cranked up the rallying of its supporters in the past month.

Neophytou had been publicly endorsed by incumbent Greek Cypriot Leader Anastasiades, who by law cannot seek a second five-year term, but his candidacy was overshadowed by Christodoulides, a party member who broke ranks with Disy to run.

The two front runners from Sunday’s vote will now have a week to win over voters, after which the victor will have to wrestle with how to break a deadlock in reunification talks, as well as with irregular migration, labour disputes, and repairing the country’s image tarnished by corruption scandals.