More than 6,000 eligible Cypriot voters, living in the UK, have been registered to vote in their country of residence for next month’s presidential elections.

According to official figures, 6,124 Cypriot nationals have chosen to declare a UK based election centre to cast their vote on 17th February, making full use of the electoral law provision.

The vast majority of them will be voting in London. The Cyprus High Commission building in central London will play host to five election centres with a total number of 2,526 registered voters. 1,215 voters have opted for the choice of the Cyprus Community Centre in Wood Green, north London, home to a populous Cypriot community.

Outside London, Manchester has 965 registered voters, followed by Birmingham with 734, Leeds with 456 and Bristol with 228.

Britain has the second highest number of registered Cypriot voters outside Cyprus after Greece (6,980). In total, 14,745 eligible voters have been registered to exercise their voting right abroad.

Back in the 2011 general election the number of registered voters in the UK was 3,123 and in the European Parliament elections of 2009, the first time expat Cypriots were entitled to vote at their countries of residence, 1,863 of them registered to do so. The abstention levels in those two previous elections were around 40% and 60% respectively.