After brisk start, voter numbers slow later in day (Update 4)

Just over 72 per cent of people voted in the first round of presidential elections on Sunday, while close to 30 per cent of people abstained, a trend that has been steadily rising over the past two decades.

According to the final result filed by the chief returning officer’s office, the results of voter turnout for the first round was similar to 2018’s presidential elections.

A total of 561,273 people were registered to vote, which resulted in a total of 404,403 people voting (72.05 per cent), and 27.95 per cent abstaining.

Chief Returning Officer Costas Constantinou said: “For comparison purposes, it is noted that during the previous presidential elections of 2018, the final voter turnout was 71.88 per cent, which shows an increase of around 0.1 per cent.”

The results showed that the highest rate of abstention from voting was in the Limassol district, where 30.74 per cent of the public failed to go to the polls.

Larnaca was next in abstaining from voting with a rate of 27.55 per cent, while the rest of the districts were approximately 27 per cent.

In 20 years abstention has risen 18.5 per cent, in comparison with the 2003 presidential election, which was won by President Tassos Papadopoulos.

Abstention then stood at 9.45 per cent.