GOVERNMENT allies yesterday continued trading barbs for the failure to reach commonly acceptable candidates for the upcoming municipal elections.
Even party chiefs entered the fray, as AKEL leader Demetris Christofias accused his EDEK counterpart Yiannakis Omirou of lying.
A day earlier, Omirou had said that it was AKEL who unilaterally broke off negotiations for the elections.
It seemed talk of co-operation between AKEL and the socialists was like beating a dead horse, after Christofias’ statement on Monday that “it is all over with EDEK”.
The latest offer on the table was that EDEK should concede Paphos in exchange for the municipalities of Polis Chrysochous and Nicosia or a strategic municipality in the Limassol district.
But while the parties were mulling it over, things became even more complicated when AKEL proposed Eleni Mavrou – an Annan plan supporter – for the Nicosia mayorship.
The current situation is that the communists are talking with DIKO only, with the ruling party caught in the middle of the uneasy bedfellows.
“We are keeping all channels of communication open,” said DIKO deputy Andreas Angelides yesterday.
Ironically, it was DIKO who was responsible for the last straw – the party objected to the appointment of Mavrou, a pro-Annan personality, in Nicosia, which carries the symbolism of the last divided capital. It is said the ruling party would prefer a “hardliner” for Nicosia, a person whose foreign policy views are more in line with official government policy.
EDEK yesterday insisted that it was willing to discuss, but not on the basis of AKEL’s formula to trade Paphos for Polis Chrysochous.
“We have bent over backwards,” asserted EDEK’s honorary chairman Vassos Lyssarides.
“Out of the four towns-municipalities, AKEL wanted three, and DIKO the remaining one. Nevertheless, we were ready to talk.”
DIKO’s Central Committee will be convening today to decide its final – it is said – strategy for the December elections.
Despite the rift, the three allies were initially keen on preserving harmony as far as possible ahead of the 2008 presidential elections.
That appears to be a lost cause now – moreover, the parties’ row over turf has not gone down well with a wary public, which has had no say whatsoever in who represents them at the local administration level.
