By Martin Hellicar
NEPOTISM again took centre stage in pre-election sparring yesterday, with the government firing off another volley in its running battle with ex- government coalition party Diko.
Government spokesman Manolis Christofides took up most of his daily press briefing to reply to Diko’s attacks over the weekend. He said nepotism had become a “science” during the ten years Diko leader Spyros Kyprianou was President.
On Sunday, Kyprianou warned that the “nepotistic practices” of President Clerides and governing Disy were “endangering democracy.”
“If Mr Kyprianou believes democracy is at risk, he has a duty to produce not today, but yesterday, whatever evidence he has of this,” Christofides said.
“Democracy has functioned perfectly under Clerides’ government,” the spokesman added. He then launched into a personal attack on Kyprianou, saying he had sunk “very low” and was failing to maintain the “standards” of political behaviour expected of a former President.
Earlier in the day during a radio interview, Alecos Evangelou claimed that, when he had been Justice Minister, Kyprianou used to call him up at all hours of the day and night demanding Diko followers get police positions and promotions.
Before Diko abandoned their government coalition with Disy late last year, Kyprianou had demanded Evangelou’s resignation, claiming he had been condescending towards him.
Since leaving the government, centre-right Diko have thrown in their lot with left-wing Akel to back George Iacovou in the February 8 presidential elections. Right-wing Disy are supporting Clerides’s re-election campaign.
Pre-election exchanges between the two right-wing parties have been far from amicable.
Meanwhile, Akel leader Dimitris Christofias charged the Clerides campaign team with steering pre-election talk away from “burning” domestic issues to defence matters. He said all parties basically agreed that the country’s defences needed reinforcement and that co-operation with Greece in this field should be expanded, so the issue was a non-starter.
“In the pre-election campaign so far, programmes have not been analysed, no one has spoken of the problems in the health service, the big shortcomings in education and in issues of democracy, the terrible problems of drugs, the criminality sowing insecurity among the populace, the doubling of unemployment, the disappearance of our industry, our growing national debt, ” he said.
A few hours later, the Akel campaign office issued a statement repeating claims that National Guard radar systems in the Troodos mountains had been non-functional for the past three years.
Christofides had earlier dismissed these claims, calling on Christofias – the originator of the claims – to steer clear of defence issues in his electioneering.
Akel and Diko’s chosen candidate, Iacovou, was meanwhile busy chairing a seminar on drugs during which he lambasted the government’s record on narcotics. He said the Clerides government had been guilty of “indifference and inaction” on drugs and promised that things would change if he was elected.
Meanwhile socialist Edek’s candidate and leader, Vassos Lyssarides, called a press conference to dismiss as “dangerous misinformation” reports that his party had made up its mind about who it would back if, as widely anticipated, the elections went to a second round. He said that neither of the front-runners – Clerides or Iacovou – met with Edek’s approval, and the decision about the second round would be taken by the party after February 8.
Diko rebel Alexis Galanos, who is running for President angling for the votes of the anti-Iacovou faction within Diko, claimed yesterday that Akel and Diko members were trying to “terrorise” Paphos villagers into voting for Iacovou.
He said members of the Iacovou campaign team had descended on the village of Cholou on Saturday night, knocking on doors and pressuring residents to back Iacovou. Galanos said he had no evidence to back up his claims because villagers were too afraid to come forward.
