Exit polls showed the ruling rightwing DISY party as winners with between 29 and 33 per cent of the vote, but they also forecast the most fractious assembly ever with the possibility of the far-right ELAM entering parliament for the first time.
DISY would secure up to 21 seats, one more than their current tally of 20, while the exit polls gave the communist AKEL between 25 and 29 percent, dropping from 19 to 18 seats.
Election officials gave an initial turnout of 67 percent, with the record low abstention rate of one third -- up from 21 percent in 2011 polls for parliament -- seen to have played into the hands of smaller parties.
President Nicos Anastasiades, whose rightwing government negotiated a 2013 eurozone bailout and has claimed credit for the island's subsequent recovery, had warned voters not to abstain, although without referring to the country's statutory obligation to vote.
"I urge everyone to exercise their right to select the party, the candidate, of their choice -- it is their right. But anyone who abstains, I repeat, will not have the right to complain afterwards," the president said.
A spate of corruption scandals in public office and parliament's handling of the eurozone bailout agreement have sparked widespread anger and disenchantment with the political scene.
ELAM's entry into the Cypriot parliament would echo the wave of rightwing populism that has swept through Europe.
ELAM defends the Athens-inspired coup of 1974 that sought to unite the island with Greece and that triggered Turkey's invasion of its northern third ushering in a division that remains to this day.
The negotiations are at a crucial stage and Greek Cypriot leader Anastasiades and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci must make painful compromises to reach a deal.