Kasoulides to announced election move on June 13

MEP Ioannis Kasoulides will on June 13 announce whether he will stand in the presidential elections.

The former Foreign Minister yesterday invited “concerned citizens” to attend a gathering at the International State Fairs in Nicosia, where he would inform them of his final decision.
“I call on all Cypriot citizens…who want a new, modern and European Cyprus, to come,” he said.

Kasoulides said he would not run as an independent, hinting he would be the DISY candidate.
But given that DISY is still keeping its options open, the MEP said he would announce his intention and it was then up to the party to make up its mind.

During a live televised news show earlier this week, DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades did not commit to backing Kasoulides, but did say he was a “likely” candidate.

He also called Kasoulides a “very able politician, abler than most”.

Kasoulides is pitching himself as a moderate, hoping to attract as broad a cross-section of voters as possible. He says that, if elected, he would not be saddled with “party baggage”.

The question remains, though, how DISY can govern in the remote possibility their candidate wins the elections. The rightwing party holds just a little over 30 per cent of the electorate.

Meanwhile media reports say a meeting between the three government partners will take place sometime next week.

President Papadopoulos and his supporters in DIKO are said to be worried about the possibility of AKEL’s Demetris Christofias running as a standalone candidate.

In a game of cat and mouse, neither Papadopoulos nor Christofias have officially announced their candidacies.

Papadopoulos has the unconditional support of DIKO and socialists EDEK, but also needs AKEL to guarantee a second term in office. Otherwise, he could face Christofias in the runoff, or even Kasoulides.