Limassol’s bishop Athanasios is public’s favourite for Sunday’s elections – survey

Limassol’s bishop Athanasios is believed to be the most suitable successor to the late Archbishop Chrysostomos according to a survey published on Monday.

The survey was carried out by Cybc in light of the coming archbishop elections on Sunday. It also looked into other matters about the church, such as its intervention in national issues.

It showed that fewer people trust the church in recent years, while most people believe the church is interfering more than it should in politics. Regarding the scheduled elections, Limassol’s Athanasios was a favourite with participants considering him the frontrunner.

Out of 1,002 people who participated, half of them said they attend church service a few times per year, 21 per cent two or three times per month, while 18 per cent go to church every Sunday or more times per week.

Only 11 per cent said they never or very rarely go to church, excluding ceremonies such as weddings and baptisms.

Regarding the church’s influence in Cyprus, 31 per cent said it is stronger compared with ten years prior and 41 per cent said it is about the same. A smaller percentage of 21 per cent believe the church’s influence is smaller today than what it was a decade earlier.

About four out of ten people, or 41 per cent, believe the intervention of the church in the Cyprus problem is bigger than what it should be, 25 per cent said it is about as much as needed and 23 per cent said it is less than what it should be. Some 11 per cent had no opinion.

About half of responders said they probably trust the church (49 per cent) while 33 per cent said they probably do not trust the church and 15 per cent were neutral. Three per cent had no opinion on the issue. This is much lower than the 69 per cent of people who trusted the church in 2011 and 65 per cent in 2012. Trust in the church has recorded a steady decline in recent years, dropping to 43 per cent in 2021.

As for the elections, most participants, 64 per cent, plan to vote on Sunday, of whom 43 per cent were certain and 21 per cent said they will probably vote.

Another 33 per cent said they will abstain, with 21 per cent being certain they will not vote and ten per cent responding that they will probably not vote. Two per cent said they could not vote and three per cent had no opinion.

Asked whether they personally know any of the six candidates -Karpasia Christoforos was not part of the survey – 11 per cent said they knew Limassol’s Athanasios. Five per cent said the bishop of Tamasos Isaias, four per cent Morphou Neophytos, three per cent knew the Paphos bishop Georgios and another three the Constantia/Famagusta Vasilios. Only one per cent knew the Kyrenia bishop Chrysostomos.

Athanasios was thought of as the most suitable candidate for the vacated throne of the archbishop, with 30 per cent, while 20 per cent of participants had no opinion on the issue. The Limassol bishop was followed by Isaias with 14 per cent, Georgios with 13 per cent, Vasilios with 11 per cent, Nephytos with seven per cent and Chrysostomos with three per cent.

He was also believed most suitable by people who go to church often but also by those who do not while he was the top choice among those who plan to vote in the elections.

Furthermore, the Limassol bishop was the top choice of people belonging to different political ideologies. According to the survey, 30 per cent of left-wingers believed Athanasios was the most suitable, 24 per cent of centrists and 35 per cent of right-wingers believed the same. Kyrenia bishop Chrysostomos received the lowest percentage.

Some 46 per cent of participants thought Athanasios would receive the most votes in the first round, while 11 per cent said Paphos Georgios would be first and the remaining candidates got under ten per cent. In total, 22 per cent of participants said they had no opinion on this question.

When asked to estimate who would come second in the elections, 23 per cent said Tamasos Isaias bishop, 18 per cent said Athanasios and another 18 per cent said Paphos Georgios. Constntia/Famagusta Vasilios received seven per cent, Morphou Neophtyos four and Kerynia Chrysostomos three per cent.

Paphos Georgios was estimated by 20 per cent of participants that he will come third, while 16 per cent said it would be Tamsos Isaias and 11 per cent Morphou Neophytos. The lowest percentage was again Kerynia Chrysostomos with four per cent, while Athanasios was estimated third by five per cent of responders and Constantia/Famagusta Vasilios by nine.

The survey was carried out from November 24 to December 3 with telephone interviews of people living across the government-controlled areas.