By Michele Kambas
NICOSIA, May 24 (Reuters) - Cyprus's far right made gains in Sunday's election while anti-corruption newcomers and social media influencers entered parliament, results showed, in a vote analysts said would reshape the island's political landscape.
Just over half a million Cypriots went to the polls on Sunday to elect 56 lawmakers - an election seen as a litmus test for trends ahead of presidential elections in two years' time.
Key backers of incumbent President Nicos Christodoulides, a centrist, were among the biggest losers of the evening.
With most of the votes from Sunday's poll counted, results released by the Interior Ministry showed far-right ELAM, an offshoot of Greece's banned Golden Dawn party, with about 11% of the vote, up from 6.8% in the last legislative elections in 2021, placing it as the third-largest party in the legislature.
It was behind right-wing DISY and Communist AKEL parties which polled 27.2% and 23.8% of the vote, respectively, with a small increase for AKEL and a small decline for DISY.
While executive power rests in Cyprus with the presidency, the vote and the loss of political allies could flag the new alliances centrist Christodoulides may need if he wants to be re-elected in 2028.
Three centrist parties backing Christodoulides — Diko, Dipa and EDEK — suffered losses. EDEK, a Socialist party particularly prominent in Cypriot politics since its establishment in 1969, failed to reach the 3.6% threshold to enter parliament. Dipa also failed to pass the threshold.
NEWBIES EJECT ESTABLISHED PARTIES
Corruption and cost of living concerns were prominent in the campaign.
ELAM campaigned against migration and also holds a hard line in negotiations with Turkish Cypriots on the ethnically split island, advocating the closure of checkpoints linking the two sides across a U.N.-controlled buffer zone.
ALMA, a newly formed movement campaigning on accountability and political reform, secured parliamentary representation for the first time with about 6% of the vote. It has ruled out any cooperation with ELAM in parliament.
Analysts Fiona Mullen and Hubert Faustmann said Christodoulides would likely face a delicate balancing act to muster support from parties should he seek re-election now his principal backers were all but wiped out.
"If he doesn't get the support of DISY, he necessarily needs ELAM support, formally or informally, for any chance of re-election," Faustmann said.
Another winner of the evening was Direct Democracy, founded by social media influencer outlier Phidias Panayiotou with 5.4% of the vote. Among his followers, he is best known for camping for weeks outside the offices of X owner Elon Musk in 2023, and eventually succeeding in his goal of getting a hug.
(Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Helen Popper, Christina Fincher and Andrew Heavens)
