There is no third candidate

By Charlie Charalambous

FINANCE Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou yesterday dismissed reports that Disy and Diko were looking for a third option in the presidential elections.

With the rift between President Clerides and Diko leader Spyros Kyprianou threatening to dissolve the alliance government, it is claimed a third candidate is being sought.

But Christodoulou brushed aside such claims, saying Disy was behind Clerides one hundred per cent.

“The whole of Disy wants Clerides to stand, but he’s not being pressured into doing so. The decision is entirely up to him.”

Diko also issued a press announcement to douse the whispering campaign on a new Disy-Diko presidential candidate.

The minister made it clear that Clerides was not under strong pressure from close colleagues to announce his candidature for a second term in office.

“The conference has announced its support for Clerides as president, based on the fact that he will stand again. The option of a third candidate has not been discussed nor will it be discussed in the future,” said Christodoulou.

However, Christodoulou expressed the government’s hope that Diko would not pull its ministers out.

Disy president Nicos Anastassiades echoed this wish and suggested it wasn’t beyond the two parties to agree on common policies and principles to allow the alliance to continue.

But Diko fired a broadside at Anastassiades and his party for suggesting that Kyprianou pulled the rug from under the government’s feet for purely personal reasons.

“The decisions of the Democratic Party are based on clear political reasons, ” said yesterday’s Diko statement.

Tassos Papadopoulos, Diko’s parliamentary spokesman, said the current situation now meant that no single party could bring a candidate of its choosing to power.

“No single party can bring a president to power, it is now up to the electorate to decide.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.