Eighty-nine-year-old Christakis Rotsides will be the oldest candidate at the forthcoming parliamentary elections, having registered as an independent candidate in the Limassol district on Wednesday.

A retired musician, Rotsides said that “I want to be elected with my own strength and not with foreign support”.

“As far as the Cyprus problem is concerned, it is a matter of invasion and occupation and not between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots,” he said.

At 89, he was born before seven of the 13 people who have served as House president, with Annita Demetriou, Adamos Adamou, Demetris Syllouris, Yiannakis Omirou, Marios Garoyian, and Demetris Christofias all having been born after him.

The late president Spyros Kyprianou, who died in 2002 and served as House president during two separate terms and as president between 1977 and 1988, was born just five years before Rotsides.