Incumbent Anastasiades leads Cyprus presidential election, heads to runoff: exit poll

NICOSIA, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades led Sunday's first round presidential election and will face a runoff in a week's time, according to an exit poll by the state TV.

The poll showed Anastasiades leading with 38 to 42 percent of the vote, followed by Stavros Malas, who is supported by left-wing AKEL, with 27-32 percent of the vote.

If confirmed by actual election results, centrist Nicolas Papadopoulos, who is supported by his own Democratic Party and three other smaller center parties, is left out of the presidential race with 21.5 to 24.5 percent of the vote.

Christos Christou, candidate of the extreme right ELAM party, which is associated with Greece's neo-nazi Golden Dawn faction, achieved better than expected results, garnering 4 to 6 percent of the vote, ahead of center-left candidate Giorgos Lillikas, a former commerce and foreign minister in leftist governments. Enditem