UPDATE 3-Far right and newcomers make gains in Cyprus election

Cyprus's far right made gains ‌in ​Sunday's election while anti-corruption newcomers and social media influencers entered parliament, results showed, in a vote analysts said would reshape the island's political landscape. Just over half a million Cypriots went to the polls on Sunday ‌to elect 56 lawmakers - an election seen as a litmus test for trends ahead of presidential elections in two years' time.

Key backers of incumbent President Nicos Christodoulides, a centrist, were among the biggest losers of the evening. With most of the votes from Sunday's poll counted, results released by the ‌Interior Ministry showed far-right ELAM, an offshoot of Greece's banned Golden Dawn party, with about 11% of the vote, up from 6.8% in ‌the last legislative elections in 2021, placing it as the third-largest party in the legislature.

It was behind right-wing DISY and Communist AKEL parties which polled 27.2% and 23.8% of the vote, respectively, with a small increase for AKEL and a small decline for DISY. While executive power rests in Cyprus with the presidency, the vote and the loss of ⁠political allies ​could flag the new alliances centrist ⁠Christodoulides may need if he wants to be re-elected in 2028.

Three centrist parties backing Christodoulides — Diko, Dipa and EDEK — suffered losses. EDEK, a Socialist party particularly prominent in Cypriot politics ⁠since its establishment in 1969, failed to reach the 3.6% threshold to enter parliament. Dipa also failed to pass the threshold. NEWBIES EJECT ESTABLISHED PARTIES

Corruption and cost of ​living concerns were prominent in the campaign. ELAM campaigned against migration and also holds a hard line in negotiations with Turkish Cypriots on ⁠the ethnically split island, advocating the closure of checkpoints linking the two sides across a U.N.-controlled buffer zone. ALMA, a newly formed movement campaigning on accountability and political reform, secured parliamentary ⁠representation ​for the first time with about 6% of the vote. It has ruled out any cooperation with ELAM in parliament.

Analysts Fiona Mullen and Hubert Faustmann said Christodoulides would likely face a delicate balancing act to muster support from parties should he seek re-election now his principal backers were ⁠all but wiped out. "If he doesn't get the support of DISY, he necessarily needs ELAM support, formally or informally, for any chance of re-election," ⁠Faustmann said. Another winner of the evening ⁠was Direct Democracy, founded by social media influencer outlier Phidias Panayiotou with 5.4% of the vote. Among his followers, he is best known for camping for weeks outside the offices of X owner Elon Musk in 2023, ‌and eventually succeeding in ‌his goal of getting a hug. (Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by ​Helen Popper, Christina Fincher and Andrew Heavens)

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