By Charlie Charalambous
AKEL is confident that election partner Diko is fighting hard to get George Iacovou elected as president next month, despite growing dissent among Diko rank and file members.
Akel leader Demetris Christofias yesterday met his Diko counterpart Spyros Kyprianou to discuss election strategy, and afterwards both men put a brave face on the widening rift within Diko which threatens to derail the pro- Iacovou bandwagon.
“Diko is working hard to get Iacovou elected on the first Sunday (of balloting on February 8) and we are satisfied with that,” Christofias said.
Kyprianou said his party stood firm on its decision to expel the rebels and confidently predicted: “Iacovou will become the new president of Cyprus.”
But there was further criticism of Diko backing for Iacovou from the party’s Strovolos branch yesterday, highlighting a ground swell of support for the rebels.
“We consider the party’s decision to support Mr Iacovou to be wrong and dangerous. It was clearly not based on political or national criteria but on vested interests,” said a declaration by members of Diko Strovolos.
To make matters worse for Kyprianou, Diko vice president Dinos Michaelides said there was no case for him to face disciplinary action.
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” said an unrepentant Michaelides.
He also practically endorsed the move by Diko deputy Alexis Galanos to defy the party and go it alone as a presidential candidate.
Galanos himself raised the election stakes by accusing Kyprianou of degrading his position as House President to put pressure on wayward Diko members.
“The office of the House President should not be used as a campaign platform and to put pressure on party members,” said Galanos, a former House President himself.
He also alleged that Diko district offices had been sent a document asking them to blacklist any member which took an anti-Iacovou stance.
Although Galanos said he had evidence to back up his claims he was not ready to divulge it in public.
When asked to comment on the allegation, Kyprianou was abrupt and unforgiving: “I do not comment on accusations made by Galanos. For the Democratic Party he is history.”
Disy leader Nicos Anastassiades added insult to injury by declaring once again that Iacovou will not be elected president “in the first round or in the second”.
He also made it clear that President Clerides would appeal to the Diko voter and achievements of the alliance government to help get him re- elected.
In the continuing battle of claim and counter-claim, Kyprianou said yesterday that disillusioned Diko supporters were coming back to the party since it had left the Clerides administration.
And Anastassiades scorned Diko claims that Disy had resigned itself to Clerides being defeated at the polls.
Meanwhile Justice Minister Nicos Koshis yesterday confirmed reports that some police officers had been reprimanded for campaigning on behalf of various parties.
He said the police command had dealt with the issue and efforts were being made to isolate such incidents.
The first online poll of the election, published yesterday, gives Clerides an 11 per cent lead over iacovou, his nearest opponent.
Clerides garnered 42% of the 819 votes cast on the Internet, with Iacovou a distant second with 31%.
This contradicts a Sigma TV poll which gave Iacovou (34.6%) a slender lead over Clerides (33.9%).
