KISOS has decided to hold an electoral conference on July 22 to regroup and decide its new leader and political bureau.
The social-democratic party has been in crisis since it took a hammering at the parliamentary elections in May. The date was set late on Sunday after a one-day extraordinary meeting of the party’s central committee.
The conference will signal the official end of 82-year-old Dr Vassos Lyssarides’ three-decade stint as party leader.
Lyssarides came under fire from all sides when he failed to step down after his party’s dismal showing in the May 27 polls. The veteran politician eventually announced he was going two days later. His announcement was followed the next day by the resignation of the entire KISOS political bureau, throwing the party into turmoil.
KISOS, which won five House of Representatives seats as EDEK in the 1996 elections, secured only four seats in the new parliament. The party garnered just 6.5 per cent of the vote on May 27, 1.6 per cent down compared to 1996.
KISOS’ poor showing is generally put down to two things: the decision to change its name from EDEK when it merged with two smaller groupings last year, and Lyssarides’ decision to go into government with Clerides after the 1998 presidential elections.
Lyssarides, who founded EDEK 31 years ago, has made it plain he will not seek re-election at the conference and two men are favourites to succeed him. The front-runners are veteran deputy Takis Hadjidemetriou and KISOS number two Yiannakis Omirou.
Despite 25 years in parliament, Hadjidemetriou failed to get re-elected on May 27, even though he received more preference votes than any other of the party’s candidate. He automatically made way for party leader Lyssarides, who took KISOS’ only seat in Nicosia.
Omirou, who was Defence Minister during EDEK’s brief stint as coalition partners in Clerides’ government in 1998, did make it into the new House.
Although the decision to hold a conference next month was backed by the overwhelming majority of the central committee’s members, some yesterday voiced discomfort at the development.
KISOS vice-president Marinos Sizopoulos, one of Lyssarides’ closest associates, said he was considering not seeking re-election at the party conference.
“My view was that an electoral conference should wait a bit. But unfortunately the committee decided otherwise. I think we should not hold a conference in a state of panic, only aiming to renewal,” Sizopoulos said.
“We should try to attract new people and bring back our old faithful such as Efstathios Efstathiou and Andreas Sismanis. And the only way to achieve that is by giving them time to express their opinions and let them have a say in the introduction of constitutional changes,” Sizopoulos added.
But former senior member of KISOS Efstathios Efstathiou went one step further: “Moving on to an electoral conference so soon just to overthrow Lyssarides will produce devastating results. It will shrink the party further and lead it to complete isolation.
“Those methods are unacceptable and not in line with the socialist philosophy. But socialism is not a party, it is an ideology which has been introduced by all of us in this country. So we shall always be involved despite the differences.” Efstathiou said.
Both Hadjidemetriou and Omirou yesterday welcomed the central committee’s decision.
“I would like to send this message to the heartbroken faithful of KISOS: We are here and we will fight on until we overcome all these problems. I shall do everything in my power to that end,” Hadjidemetriou pledged.
The veteran deputy said that he was thinking about seeking election as party leader but could not “make any announcements yet”
Hadjidemetriou — among the first to criticise Lyssarides for holding on to power — has vowed that, at 67, he would only stay at the party’s helm for three years if chosen.
Omirou appeared optimistic that, “we are on the way to recovery.”
The KISOS acting-president said that the central committee had elected a co-ordinating committee, made up of the party’s outgoing political bureau as well as former and current deputies.
“This committee will help the party back on its feet and give a feeling of unity until the new President and the political bureau are ready to take over,” Omirou said.
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.
