THE PRESIDENTIAL election scenery remained unclear yesterday, with President Glafcos Clerides tight-lipped on whether he would seek re-election amid reports he was coming under pressure from all sides to do so.
DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades repeated yesterday that he did not know what Clerides was thinking and suggested patience until mid-January by when presidential hopefuls must officially submit their candidacy.
Reports, however, claimed that Clerides was under pressure to seek re-election from Greece, the British and the Americans, as well as his own DISY, as he was viewed as the most suitable to negotiate a settlement of the Cyprus problem and sign an agreement.
The other potential candidate whose name has been floated, Attorney-general Alecos Markides, followed Clerides’ example and refused to disclose his thoughts concerning the elections.
Surveys have found that Markides would have a clear lead over the strongest contender in the elections, DIKO leader Tasos Papadopoulos.
But yesterday he said that he would not base his decision on whether to run or not on opinion polls.
Markides declined to hint about his thoughts, saying any potential candidate had first to consider whether they felt they could contribute to the future of the country.
“We will talk soon, and do not take me for granted, because all these reports (about running) are based on the thoughts of journalists.”
“They do not come from me,” Markides added.
He said the reports were not based on discussion with those involved and the logic used to draw conclusions may not match the logic of the people actually involved.
The continuing uncertainty did not stop the exchange of barbs between opposing camps yesterday.
Anastassiades accused DIKO and AKEL of not responding to DISY’s call for a government of national unity, proving that the two parties were only interested in climbing to power.
Anastassiades said DIKO had responded to his call for unity, by saying, “no, we will share power only with AKEL and those who will support us” in the elections.
He said Papadopoulos had only now, because of the elections, remembered the existence of Turkish Cypriots, adding his party had been in contact with Turkish Cypriot parties since 1977.
Referring to comments by AKEL spokesman Nicos Katsourides, who accused DISY of being against rapprochement, Anastassiades said: “Let him and his candidate show how many times he met with Turkish Cypriots, apart from in the past two months.”
Papadopoulos said it had become clear that those who knew they would lose the elections were trying to find ways to avert them, adding that their anxiety to keep power at any cost was only too obvious.
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.
