PARTIES have already started to jostle for position ahead of the upcoming municipal elections in December, with an emerging opposition alliance between AKEL, DIKO and KISOS looking to squeeze governing DISY out of the running.
AKEL and DIKO have unofficially proposed to back KISOS heavyweight Takis Hadjidemetriou as candidate for Nicosia Mayor.
DIKO, however, suggested such an agreement with KISOS should provide that the socialist party does not maintain all five mayoral posts that it currently holds.
If Hadjidemetriou is elected as Nicosia Mayor, KISOS will get a boost after suffering a major blow when it garnered only 6.5 per cent of the vote in May’s Parliamentary elections, compared to 8 per cent it won in the 1996 elections.
KISOS currently holds five mayoral posts – Paphos, Strovolos, Lefkara, Mesa Yitonia and Athienou.
But KISOS’ Paphos branch is not prepared to let go of the Paphos post to pave the way for the election of a KISOS man in Nicosia.
KISOS’ Paphos District Secretary, Andreas Omirou, brother of party leader Yiannakis Omirou, insisted yesterday that, “the party is traditionally strong in Paphos and it would be inconceivable not to fight for the re-election of Phidias Sarikas as Mayor”.
Yiannakis Omirou’s response to his brother’s statement to the media was muted. He only said the opposition parties were in negotiations ahead of the elections.
But a senior member of KISOS, Louiza Mavromati, was more outspoken: “It is absolutely pointless to make such public statements while the three parties are still trying to agree on a coalition. This is a very sensitive and critical time and we should be careful when we talk publicly,” she told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
Mavromati saluted the idea that Hadjidemetriou might run for Nicosia Mayor.
Lakis Theodoulou, AKEL’s Paphos District Secretary, yesterday blamed his KISOS counterpart for “not letting an opposition alliance evolve naturally”.
Meanwhile, DISY deputy Panayiotis Demetriou yesterday held meetings with Greens’ representative George Perdikis and ADIK leader Dinos Michaelides to test the water for possible coalitions for the elections.
The Greens and ADIK have only one seat each in the Parliament.
Perdikis, however, was adamant his party would not cooperate with any other party “to secure the election of any candidate”.
But ADIK’s leader found common ground with Demetriou as they both agreed that coalitions for the December elections should be formed “with no strings attached,” referring to the Presidential elections in 2003.
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.
