President Tassos Papadopoulos's party gained ground in early results from Sunday's parliamentary election in Cyprus, signalling approval for a government that has threatened to block Turkey's EU entry talks.
With about 10 percent of the vote counted, Communist AKEL, a ruling coalition partner, had 30.5 percent of the vote against 28.7 of the main opposition Democratic Rally party.
Papadopoulos's centrist Democratic Party, was third with 19.4 percent. That figure was higher than the 14.8 percent it scored in 2001. Final results are expected around 7 p.m. British time.
The early results showed that parties which rejected a United Nations plan for Cyprus in 2004 saw gains, bolstering a leadership bent on extracting concessions from Turkey which is trying to join the European Union.
Parties which had been in favour of a U.N. power-sharing blueprint, overwhelmingly rejected by Greek Cypriots on the eve of the partitioned island joining the European Union in 2004, saw a decline in their support.
Cypriot president Tassos Papadopoulos, who championed rejection of the U.N. blueprint and has threatened to block Turkey's EU entry talks, made the most gains, up by more than 4 percentage points since the last election, early results showed.
"This is referendum number two," said James Ker-Lindsay at Kingston University in London. "He can take it as an endorsement of his policies and continue to take a hardline stance."
The poll clearly shows international mediators will have a hard time trying to re-impose the U.N. settlement proposals, which had called for large degrees of power-sharing with Greek Cypriots. The plan was accepted by Turkish Cypriots.
Papadopoulos and AKEL are partners in a governing coalition which has warned it could veto Turkey's bid to join the European Union if Ankara does not comply with EU commitments to open its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic by the end of this year.
Cyprus, represented in the EU only by its internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot government which does not have any diplomatic ties with Ankara, is also a thorn in Greek-Turkish relations.
Greek and Turkish Cypriots have lived divided since Turkey invaded Cyprus's north in 1974 in response to a brief Greek-inspired coup.