Turkish Cypriots vote for new leader;

NICOSIA:

Votes in the self declared Turkish Republic
of  Northern  Cyprus went to the polls on
Sunday to elect their  new leader from seven
candidates including incumbent Dervis Eroglu,

About 176,000people are eligible to vote inthe
breakaway TRNC,which occupies about a third
of the  eastern Mediteranean island ,

In 1974 in respone to an Athens engineerd coup
seeking a union with Greece ,Turkish troops invaded
nortern Cyprus,with the TNC later unlaterally
declaring independence in 193,

Erogu's main challengers are Sibel Siber -the sole
woman candidate,the head of parliament and a
former prime minister-and Mustafa Akinci,
an independent,

Who ever wins the election will be ham_
strung by a geopolitical snarl that generations
of leaders and  successive UN chiefs have
failedto untangle.

The island has been split since 1974 with about
1,000 peacekeepers monitoring  a ceasefire
line that cuts through the heart of Nicosia ,
Europe 's last divided Capital AFP