By George Psyllides
WITH time running out ahead of Sunday’s municipal elections, the battle for Nicosia, which has taken quasi presidential proportions, was yesterday rocked by ferocious attacks against independent candidate Michalakis Zampelas, found by a recent poll to lead official opposition candidate Kypros Chrysostomides by seven per cent.
The attacks against Zampelas indicate a clear shift in the strategy of the three parties supporting Chrysostomides, which are now trying to convince voters that Zampelas is not independent and that a vote for him is a vote for ruling DISY.
AKEL Secretary-general Demetris Christofias said that, no matter how hard he tried to deny it, Zampelas was DISY’s choice.
Christofias claimed Zampelas was handing out money with the sole purpose of winning votes.
He added that, should Zampelas win, DISY would be celebrating, and urged AKEL followers to honour their party and vote for Chrysostomides.
KISOS Chairman Yiannakis Omirou echoed Christofias, claiming Zampelas was not an independent candidate but rather DISY’s ” Trojan Horse” .
Omirou repeated Christofias’ vote-buying allegations, insisting that a candidate with a political past like Chrysostomides would be more befitting for Nicosia.
The two leaders were flanked in their attack by DIKO Chairman Tasos Papadopoulos, who argued for a partisan mayor, saying a technocrat could not possibly represent Cyprus successfully in European Union and other international forums.
DISY Chairman Nicos Anastassiades described Christofias’ comments as the ” the biggest insult for Nicosia residents and AKEL supporters ever uttered by a party leader” .
He wondered how a party leader could suggest his own followers might be tempted by bribes, by urging them not to take money supposedly offered by a rival candidate.
This, he added, suggested AKEL followers were misers, ready to abandon their ideology to vote for someone else for a few pieces of silver.
” They are Judases then,”Anastassiades said.
He said most of the local authority candidates backed by AKEL were on the party’s payroll or on the payroll of PEO, a trade union controlled by AKEL.
The DISY leader pointed out the three opposition parties had decided to back Chrysostomides after a process so protracted that other candidates who turned down the ticket described it as degrading and insulting to human dignity.
Zampelas avoided replying directly to the attack, insisting that Nicosia’s problems did not have party colours and that the next mayor should be an efficient technocrat.
” Regarding the abuse from Mr. Chrysostomides, it’s obvious that he has panicked,”Zampelas said.
He said the bribe card used by his opponents was one of many allegations used against him and that he would not reply.
” I will not reply; I will not criticise; I will not judge; I will be judged through my programme by the residents of Nicosia,”he said.
Chrysostomides said his long involvement in politics taught him to be ready for victory and defeat.
” You should know though that victory will be on our side,”he said.
” In this way, I’m replying to Mr. Zampelas’ comments that I have panicked, “he added.
Chrysostomides declined to comment on the allegations that his opponent was ‘buying’ votes, saying he never made such an allegation and that the party leaders should be asked about them.
But deputies from DISY and AKEL battled it out too yesterday.
DISY’s Prodromos Prodromou said Christofias was evoking party patriotism to prevent people from thinking and acting freely.
He charged that even AKEL deputies went from door to door in Zampelas’ home suburb of Kaimakli trying to sway voters.
AKEL deputy George Lillikas said Chrysostomides was only trailing by two per cent and assured that by Sunday he would be leading by as much.
