DISY boss: I have a list of shame, too

OPPOSITION head Nicos Anastassiades has claimed that he too possesses a document that lists high-ranking politicians who intervened in the transfers of military officials.
Speaking on the CyBC show ‘Eponimos’ on Tuesday night, Anastassiades said that a lengthy list had been anonymously sent to him shortly before the parliamentary elections and that it was unrelated to the Politis lists.

Politis caused havoc in the political landscape at the weekend when it published lists of people requesting transfers and their benefactors, complete with names and dates. The sponsors included personalities such as House Speaker Demetris Christofias, former presidential aide Polakis Sarris, DIKO deputy Nicos Cleanthous, former Finance Minister (now EU Health Commissioner) Marcos Kyprianou and former Interior Minister Andreas Christou.

Anastassiades said that although the President “does not practice nepotism” himself, he failed in his inability to stamp out the widespread nepotism prevalent within his administration.
“He is the one who appoints the Ministers,” Anastassiades said. “He is the head of the government.”

During the same television programme, Anastassiades indirectly accused the coalition party AKEL of intervening in the hiring of cleaners for the new Nicosia General Hospital around a year ago.

The DISY head claimed that the committee in charge of hiring staff was reshuffled so that the bulk of the cleaning positions went to AKEL party members.

DIKO MP Nicos Papadopoulos said that Anastassiades’ allegations were merely an “ironic” mudslinging effort to sling mud at the President, whose name did not appear on the list.
“On these catalogues, assuming they are factual, which I don’t know if they are, the name of the President of the Republic does not exist,” Papadopoulos said. “But Anastassiades’ name is on them. So somehow he has to explain this.”

Papadopoulos dismissed Anastassiades’ claim that there was a concerted effort to hire AKEL cleaners at the new Nicosia General Hospital, claiming that he lacked evidence and was not behaving in a serious manner.

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