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Cypriots are voting for a new president they hope will overcome years of failure to resolve the island-nation's ethnic division and deliver more benefits from an economy on the rebound after a severe financial crisis.

Polls opened Sunday with the approximately 551,000 eligible voters starting to cast their ballots for the young republic's eighth president at over 1,100 polling booths.

Opinion polls show incumbent President Nicos Anastasiades leading his two main rivals, but he may not receive more than half of votes cast to avoid a runoff in a week's time.

Anastasiades could face in the Feb. 4 runoff either Stavros Malas, who's backed by the communist AKEL party, or Nicholas Papadopoulos, leader of the center-right DIKO party and the son of the late former President Tassos Papadopoulos.