Cyprus' presidential elections will go to a runoff next weekend after conservative Nicos Anastasiades failed to clinch an outright majority in Sunday's first round.
The 66-year-old leader of the Democratic Rally Party (DISY) came out top in the first round with 45.46 per cent of the vote, official results showed.
He will face communist-backed candidate Stavros Malas, a former health minister, in the February 24 runoff. He won 26.91 per cent of the vote.
Independent Giorgos Lilikas, a former foreign minister, was a close third with 24.93 per cent. Turnout stood at 83.14 per cent.
The first challenge for the winner will be to negotiate a bailout of up to 17.5 billion euros (23.6 billion dollars) with international creditors to ease the country's financial crisis.
Anastasiades is in favour of negotiating and meeting the terms of the bailout deal with the European Commission, ECB and International Monetary Fund. Their decision on whether to grant the bailout is expected in March.
"Today's result is a victory for the forces that want Cyprus to turn a new page," Anastasiades told a cheering crowd of supporters, adding "I just received a strong mandate for a European orientation of Cyprus."
Malas, 45, campaigned for less severe austerity measures, no privatizations and more favourable terms for Cyprus under any deal.
"This is a fight which we will win," he said.
President Dimitris Christofias, the only communist leader in the European Union and whom many Cypriots blame for the economic crisis, did not seek reelection.
Nicosia first indicated its intention to seek a bailout in June, but the communist government has balked at many of the privatization measures demanded in return for international aid.
While considerably smaller than rescue loans given to other eurozone countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the bailout Cyprus is seeking is equivalent to its entire economic output,
forcing many to question whether it is capable of repaying it.
The newly elected government also has to convince potential creditors that concerns over money-laundering are unfounded, following reports that Russian oligarchs, mafia and corrupt officials
have stowed 26 billion dollars in Cyprus - a claim its leaders have repeatedly rejected.
Cyprus saw its economy thrown off kilter by the collapse of the Greek economy. The bailout is meant to rescue its banks, which have taken enormous losses on bad Greek debt investments.
Government officials have said Cyprus could stay financially afloat until March, but that the situation could become dire if it did not then receive help from its eurozone partners.
Previous elections were dominated by peace talks to unify the island, which is divided between the Greek south and Turkish north.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 into an internationally recognized and EU-integrated Greek Cypriot south, and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, the result of a Turkish invasion in response
to a Greek-inspired coup.
Turkey wants progress in reunification talks between the two sides but a UN-led round launched four years ago has so far failed to break the deadlock.