Nicosia, Cyprus, Apr 24: Turkish and Greek Cypriots decide today whether they can live with a UN plan their leaders have rejected as requiring too many concessions,
but that would reunite their tiny Mediterranean Island after 30 years of division.
Chances of approval by both sides in separate, simultaneous referendums are slim because of the plan`s required compromises: Limiting refugees` rights to return, equal sharing of political power, uprooting dozens of villages.
Rejection by either side of the plan, an unprecedented UN appeal to the people to impose an entirely new political structure after leaders could not agree, could make for a frosty May 1 entry to the EU for Cyprus.
Early turnout was light Ioannis Kyriakiees, 55-year-old chemical engineer and vice president of a local town council in the south, was among the first to vote after polls opened. He voted no, and said he wasn`t worried about the possible repercussions of rejection despite pressure from the British and US governments.
``Nobody knows the future,`` he said after voting at an elementary school in Panodeftera, about 25 kilometers.”
About 480,000 Greek Cypriots in the south and 143,000 Turkish Cypriots in the north age 18 and over are eligible to vote, and results were expected shortly after polls close.
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and Cyprus` president, Greek Cypriot Tassos Papadopoulos, both oppose the plan but have agreed to abide by results of the referendums.
Bureau Report
