And now down to the serious business

THE AKEL party’s 20th congress yesterday began getting down to business after the fanfare of the opening day.

The proceedings included speeches by representatives from all Cypriot political parties as well as Turkish Cypriot and foreign parties.

The congress comes at a crucial juncture when the communist party is looking to close ranks and prevent voter leakage ahead of the May 2006 legislative elections.

Still, there was no escaping some good old-fashioned, home-grown humour, as politicians took it in turns to taunt and tease each other.

The juiciest exchanges came when DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades stepped up to the podium.

“You’ve kept us here for two days now…but we know what you’re up to,” he said, turning to the AKEL leadership seated behind him.

“It’s because you don’t want to allow us time to prepare for the elections.”

“I’ve been here so long, I feel like a conventioneer myself,” Anastassiades remarked.
Not to be outdone, AKEL boss Demetris Christofias countered:

“You’re too undisciplined to be a conventioneer…you’ve been speaking for 12 minutes, while you should have taken up just 10.”

Next United Democrats chairman Michalis Papapetrou made light of the fact he absconded from AKEL years ago, a move many believe the communist party has never forgiven.
“I’m surprised to have been invited here at all,” he joked.

There was, however, a trace of controversy over Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Ferdi Sabit Soyer, who on Thursday apparently left the conference room while Christofias was still speaking.

The indecorous move raised some eyebrows at the time, but yesterday the matter was allowed to fade away, with President Papadopoulos not wishing to comment when asked by journalists.
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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.