Sunday, 18 October 2020_Turkish Cypriots have begun voting in a tight run-off election to pick a new president, amid an escalation of tensions between Turkey and Greece over a territorial dispute in the Mediterranean Sea.
Incumbent president Mustafa Akinci and the current Prime Minister Ersin Tatar contest in the runoff vote.
The president supports the island’s reunification with the majority Greek-speaking EU member, the Republic of Cyprus in the south.
But the right-wing Turkish nationalist Tatar supports separate sovereign administrations on the island — a plan that Turkey has recently said is the only solution to the decades-long dispute.
Tatar, who receives the backing of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won a 32 percent of the vote earlier this month, ahead of Akinci, who secured almost 30 percent of the vote.
Akinci also has the backing of Tufan Erhurman, a fellow Social Democrat, who came third last time around.
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