Turkish Cypriot leader ahead after first round of vote

Incumbent Dervis Eroglu will face off against independent Mustafa Akinci in a second round of voting for the Turkish Cypriot leadership after a close first round, official figures showed Sunday.

Turkish Cypriots in breakaway northern Cyprus are voting for a leader who will head peace talks with the Greek Cypriots on the divided east Mediterranean island.

With all ballot papers counted after Sunday's first round, Eroglu, president of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), leads with 28.2 percent of votes cast, with Akinci chasing close behind at 26.9 percent.

Turnout was 62.3 percent, official figures showed.

None of the seven candidates secured the required 50 percent of the vote to win outright, as expected.

Third was the sole woman candidate, Sibel Siber, the head of parliament and a former prime minister. She won 22.5 percent of votes cast.

The race is now between Eroglu, and Akinci, a former mayor of northern Nicosia.

"We are going to live in peace," said an optimistic Akinci, whose symbol is an olive branch, after the count.

"Past generations suffered a lot. People from both communities have shared suffering," he said.

About 176,000 people are eligible to vote in the breakaway TRNC, which occupies about a third of the eastern Mediterranean island.

Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0500 GMT) and closed 10 hours later.

"I voted for someone who can resolve the problem" of the four-decade division of Cyprus, said Hussein Ors, a 57-year-old civil servant emerging from a polling station in Nicosia.

"We hope every time but always end up being disappointed," said another voter, Hulya Tozake, also 57, blaming both the Greek Cypriot side and Ankara.

- Reliance on Turkey -

In 1974, in response to an Athens-engineered coup seeking a union with Greece, Turkish troops invaded northern Cyprus, with the TRNC later unilaterally declaring independence in 1983.

Only Turkey recognises the TRNC, which relies on Ankara to provide one third of its annual budget.

Whoever emerges the winner after next Sunday's second round, he will be hamstrung by a geopolitical snarl that generations of leaders and successive UN chiefs have failed to untangle.

The island has been split since 1974, with about 1,000 peacekeepers monitoring a ceasefire line that cuts through the heart of Nicosia, Europe's last divided capital.

Decades of talks have failed to unify the island, including a plan by then-UN secretary general Kofi Annan which was approved by Turkish Cypriot voters in 2004 but overwhelmingly rejected by Greek Cypriots in separate referenda.

Cyprus joined the European Union that year still a divided island and, although the north is technically part of the bloc, Turkish Cypriots are denied nearly all of the benefits of EU membership.

UN peace envoy Espen Barth Eide announced on April 7 that peace negotiations are set to resume after the Turkish Cypriot election.

Many Turkish Cypriots have lost faith in their leaders' ability to reach a deal and open the TRNC to the rest of the world.

"People have been born, lived, had children and families, and died waiting for them to resolve something," said human rights lawyer Ermine Colak.

But Turkish lawyer Bashak Hasgul, who has lived in Cyprus for 15 of her 35 years, was optimistic after voting in Sunday's first round.

"The hope of a single island, a single Cyprus. I hope the next president makes that happen," she said.