Taramountas joins rebel bench in Parliament

KYRENIA deputy Christodoulos Taramountas took his new seat in parliament yesterday, joining former DISY rebels Prodromos Prodromou and Rikkos Erotocritou, after he resigned from DISY’s parliamentary team on Tuesday.

Taramountas announced his resignation from the party’s parliamentary team last Tuesday, arguing that the party leadership had ignored DISY grass root members by supporting a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum.

He blamed the DISY leadership for causing the collapse of the party by ignoring the message put forward by its members. However, he refused to step down as deputy too, as requested by DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades. The deputy said he would stay in parliament and continue to represent the people of Kyrenia who elected him.
In yesterday’s plenary session, he had to abandon the party’s bench and move to a new seat behind the DIKO party bench, next to his two former colleagues who were kicked out of the party last week.

Prodromou and Erotocritou were expelled from DISY last Wednesday for divisive behaviour in the run-up to the April 24 referendum and had to take up new seats in parliament as a result.

The two deputies openly challenged the party’s decision to support the ‘yes’ vote in the referendum, with Prodromou even announcing a separate candidate list to contest the June 13 Euro elections.

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