Communist leads race for Cyprus presidency

Frontrunner Demetris Christofias could make history by becoming divided Cyprus's first communist president when he faces off against his conservative rival yesterday.
The AKEL communist party chief has a clear lead in the race after securing the backing of three other parties despite differing views over peace talks with the Turkish Cypriots and amid hopes negotiations may soon be revived.
The centre-right DIKO party of outgoing President Tassos Papadopoulos, who was dumped by voters in last Sunday's first round, has urged its supporters to back Christofias in Sunday's run-off against Ioannis Kasoulides.
Socialist EDEK and the greens also urged their members to vote Christofias.
Their combined forces would give the AKEL chief more than 58 percent if the electorate votes along the same lines as in the 2006 parliamentary polls.
Christofias "should feel happy with the support he's got but this will not be an easy battle for anyone," according to Joseph Joseph, professor of international relations at Cyprus University.
"Christofias will be the winner but it's going to be a close race."
Whoever wins will become Cyprus' sixth president.
If that man is Christofias, the Soviet-educated speaker of parliament will become the European Union's only communist head of state in a system in which the president wields real power.
Alarmed at such a prospect, the leader of the Cyprus Orthodox Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, urged people to vote for Kasoulides over fears that religious education would be scrapped from the school curriculum.
But he quickly came under fire from the communist camp, with Christofias calling the comments a slur and stating categorically that he had never contemplated abolishing religious education.
"I'm not sure Kasoulides getting the support of the archbishop is good for him," Joseph noted.