THE Supreme Court yesterday upheld an injunction banning the party headed by former DISY (Democratic Rally) chairman Yiannakis Matsis from using the word ‘Rally’ in his name.
Matsis, along with two expelled DISY deputies and several other dissidents, had named the party Rally for Europe, drawing from the heritage of DISY.
The injunction had been issued by a Nicosia district court on May 19, but was suspended by the Supreme Court the following day after it accepted the rebels’ argument that the injunction had been issued without them being heard and that given the deadline for the submission of candidacies, they could not wait for the June 1 hearing.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court upheld the district court decision, which is however temporary.
“The court effectively restored the district court injunction, which is temporary,” said lawyer Eleni Vrahimi, who represented the dissidents.
She added: “What the Matsis team will do is contest the elections, like the leader said, with a different name, because this unresolved issue does not help anyone.”
Vrahimi suggested that the court had been misled and based its decision on the wrong facts by accepting that the other side only found out who the rally for Europe candidates would be on May 19.
“At least concerning Rikkos Erotocritou and Prodromos Prodromou it had been known that they would contest the elections with that name since May 4; concerning the rest it was at least known since May 14,” Vrahimi said.
The outspoken lawyer said the formation would now proceed with a different name but from a legal angle justice should be done to the candidates, who wanted to carry a name they had every right to use.
“Thus, on a district level, we will carry on with the case and there is also a pending petition filed by us that DISY has no legal standing to file lawsuits,” Vrahimi added.
Dissident deputy Christodoulos Taramountas suggested that what was important for them was the personality of the candidates, their political positions and their political programme.
“This is just a formal procedure, which we had hoped to win, but at this moment there is the Supreme Court decision that we will respect,” Taramountas said.
Prodromou said that despite the decision no being solid, the formation would “accept it with a smile”.
“We respect the decision because we respect the principles of the Republic of Cyprus and we fought against those who wanted to abolish it and turn it into a statelet,” Prodromou said.
He accused DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades and his followers of turning the party into the “dictatorial rally” and resorting to legal procedures instead of fighting a political battle.
As soon as the decision was heard, the dissidents announced they would be entering the elections with the name For Europe.
Matsis said the name had been accepted by the Chief Returning Officer and the Attorney-general’s office.
The party’s goal is to enter Europe and serve the interests of the Cypriot people, Matsis said.
“This is our goal, this is what we’ll serve and this is the direction we will follow,” he added.
“We want to serve the people and the public; our goals are achieved in this way and we are ready to enter the elections with optimism to get into Europe and assert our goals and visions for the people by ejecting the negativity and adjusting everything on the real European prospects and the application of the acquis communitaire,” Matsis said.
Anastassiades said what was important to him was the national problem and not the name of any other party.
He added that the decision would be respected; “it does not concern me and I am not bothered with the name any other formation would take to enter the elections”.
Asked if he felt vindicated by the decision, Anastassiades pointed out that it was a matter of history and tradition, a matter of a political power established with the name DISY, adding that anyone trying to hijack that did not possess any political morals.
Concerning the election battle, the DISY chief said: “The reply will be given on June 13 and it will be a reply befitting those who try to divide a party, which they had served.”
The Supreme Court decision gave the green light for the printing of the ballot papers, which had been delayed pending the settlement of the name.
Chief Returning Officer Lazaros Savvides said yesterday that the ballot papers for the June 13 elections would be ready by Wednesday morning.
Savvides said the only issue pending was the formation’s logo but he expected that to be settled later in the day for the printing to start late in the afternoon.
Savvides said 550,000 ballot papers would be printed: 450,000 would be used in the elections and the rest would be kept for administrative purposes.
