A NICOSIA man is standing as a candidate for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in a bid to attract protest votes from disaffected voters.
Costas Tsangarides’ yesterday launched his campaign under the motto: ‘Turn your blank vote into a voice of protest’.
Voting in Cyprus is compulsory so they only way to express dissatisfaction is by casting a blank vote. However, blank votes are counted as spoiled ballots.
Tsangarides studied Economics in France and says he has been involved in several committees and parties in London, France and Canada.
He said yesterday he was targeting those people who were planning not to vote for any party because they did not agree with any of those up for election.
He unveiled the planks of his campaign at a news conference held yesterday, saying he would like to see the immediate implementation of a horizontal voting system, allowing voters to cast preference votes across party lines.
He was also vocal about the plight of the Cyprus Stock Exchange, which he described as a comedy that should be investigated with those found responsible severely punished.
He added he would like to see a committee of experts put in place for better supervision of military affairs so that money spent on equipment could be properly justified.
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.
