Disy deputy breaks ranks with dad

By Charlie Charalambous

DISY DEPUTY Katie Clerides has broken ranks with her party and with her father by calling on Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides to resubmit his resignation and on President Glafcos Clerides to accept it second time round.

“I think it would be better if the minister could re-tender his resignation and the president were to accept it,” Katie Clerides told reporters yesterday.

President Clerides has faced a barrage of criticism from his coalition partners as well as from opposition parties for not accepting the minister’s resignation, tendered last Friday.

Now the president is under fire from his own daughter, who has censured her father for backing the embattled minister.

And in the ensuing uproar, Katie has urged the President to be given a second chance to put things right, calling on Michaelides to resubmit his resignation.

“I have a different opinion from my father and it would make things easier if he had accepted the minister’s resignation,” said Katie in retrospect.

She said these were her own views and that she did not consider Michaelides to be guilty.

Katie Clerides made the shock proposal before Disy’s parliamentary party meeting last evening in an attempt to silence fellow deputy Christos Pourgourides, whose list of corruption charges against Michaelides first set the ball rolling.

After the meeting, Disy leader Nicos Anastassiades said it had been agreed that Pourgourides would refrain from further statements and that the House Watchdog Committee – of which Pourgourides is chairman – should suspend its own corruption probe against Michaelides while a special investigation is taking place.

The cabinet has appointed two independent investigators to look into unlawful enrichment allegations levelled at the minister.

Pourgourides said yesterday he would refuse to co-operate with the probe, which he feels lacks credibility.

Pourgourides said last night he “accepted and respected” the decision by his parliamentary party, and said he would abstain from making further statements.

Anastassiades and other top party members have made no secret of their anger at Pourgourides’ anti-corruption crusade, believing it could seriously damage the Clerides administration, which it supports.

Disy, which has a majority of ministers in the cabinet, is the only party that has not publicly condemned President Clerides for allowing Michaelides to remain in office.

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