Yes, in parliamentary elections (national or Euro), you primarily vote for a party, with the option to influence the party list. It's better than just voting a party list with a fixed order, as it is the case in England, from what I gather. Most people here want a reform called "horizontal voting", which is a bit vaguely defined, but it's more or less the reversal of the current system: make voting for a candidate obligatory, and voting for a party optional. But it's too vaguely defined at the moment, I guess an actual system similar to "horizontal voting" would be Mixed Member Proportional.
(Btw: you get one preference tick for every 4 seats in your constituency, rounding upwards. So, my constituency has 11 seats in the national parliament, that means 11/4=2.75, meaning I get 3 preference ticks in that party list I am voting for. In the European elections Cyprus is a single constituency, so 6/4=1.5, 2 preference ticks. It's not ranked, all ticks are equal preference)
As for the presidential elections, it looks like that. (Note: In Cyprus, the President is both head of state and head of government, like in the US and a few other countries)
http://offsite.com.cy/wp-content/upload ... 2013-1.jpgIf no candidate reaches 50%+1 vote, there's a run-off election the following Sunday. And no candidate ever received more than 35~40% of the vote in the first round since Makarios died. So there's always a second round. In the week between, the two most popular candidates seek to form alliances with the guy who came in third. It's a true Middle Eastern Bazaar taking place.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 7664_n.jpg