Cypriot communist party leader Demetris Christofias has won the presidential election in a run-off against former foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides.
Parliament speaker Mr Christofias won 53.36% of the vote against Mr Kasoulides, who won 46.64%.
Mr Christofias is a builder's son who is viewed by many as a 'man of the people'.
During the election campaign, Mr Christofias presented himself as a man who can ‘build bridges’ across the island's divided Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.
He becomes the European Union's sole communist head of state and makes Cyprus the only European country with a communist president apart from ex-Soviet Moldova, over 16 years after the Soviet Union collapsed.
The Russian-educated Mr Christofias is not shy of underlining his working-class roots by cultivating a reputation for plain speaking and no-nonsense politics. His down-to-earth image has won him admirers across the political spectrum.
Last July the communist party AKEL backed Mr Christofias for the presidency - the first time in its 82-year history that it decided to field a candidate from within its own ranks.
Mr Christofias, whose buzzword is ‘unity’, says he has the credibility to put the Cyprus peace process back on track and ensure reunification of the eastern Mediterranean island after 34 years of division.
Cyprus has been split along ethnic lines following violence after independence from Britain in 1960 and a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek inspired coup.
A breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in north Cyprus is recognised only by Ankara, while the Greek Cypriot south nominally represents the whole island in the EU.
