“WE HAVE been taken into the past, to times brimming with nepotism and swelling with scandals,” Presidential candidate Ioannis Kasoulides proclaimed yesterday.
In response to President Tassos Papadopoulos’ claim that “the government has delivered on all the promises it has made up to now,” Kasoulides berated Papadopoulos’ governmental record, listing no less than “153+1 unfulfilled promises”.
The all-out attack covered a wide range of topics, from defence to tourism and from water problems to local administration.
“He came to power promising change, but the only thing he has achieved is political stagnation, a reduction in economic competition and burdening households with debt.”
Although Kasoulides refused to gift AKEL a blank slate for its four and a half year involvement in government, “ipso facto this does not make President Papadopoulos any less responsible.”
Kasoulides resorted to analogy to explain his point: “He grades himself with a perfect score. He reminds me of the truant student who takes it upon himself to change his grade.”
Kypros Chrysostomides’ Front for the Restructuring of the Centre expressed its bewilderment at Papadopoulos’ social benefits commitments.
“The President would have been more convincing if he had delivered the promises he made in 2003, prior to making new commitments for the next five years,” the Front said in an announcement.
Presidential candidate Costas Themistocleous agreed that a lot of promises made by the incumbent government have not been kept, and wondered “where the President expects to find the €500 million with which he intends to fund social benefits and pensions.”
Themistocleous accused Papadopoulos of displaying an approach of “electioneering demagoguery towards the people’s staple concerns.”
President Papadopoulos, however, was not without his defenders.
EDEK Chairman Yiannakis Omirou indulged in anti-rationalism, as he dismissed the claims that Papadopoulos’ commitments were motivated by electioneering since “these concern the next five years and will not be implemented immediately.”
European Party Chairman Demetris Syllouris came out in favour of Papadopoulos’ 19 commitments, pointing out the obvious: “Unlike the promises regarding social benefits made by other candidates, the President also secures simultaneous tax reductions.”
Regarding the issue of political advertising, the Free Citizens movement had this to say: “The scads of money the Papadopoulos campaign spends on a daily basis for political advertising will not buy a single vote. The people will soon elect those who have decided to challenge their intelligence out of office.”
Nonetheless, the Papadopoulos camp came back with a vengeance late in the day.
“It is the Christofias and Kasoulides campaigns that are spending the most.
“Their lack of arguments caused our panic-stricken rivals to resort to black propaganda,” claimed DIKO Secretary Kyriakos Kenevezos.
AKEL candidate Demetris Christofias topped the table, Kenevezos said, spending more than €1 million, Kasoulides came second spending just under €900,000 and Papadopoulos came third spending just above €700,000.
The spending data given by the Papadopoulos camp covered the period between October 1 2007 to January 7 2008.
The Church also attempted a new foray onto the election scene. When asked whether the Archbishop’s sporadic political comments constitute an involvement in the upcoming elections, Bishop of Paphos Georgios said that the Church’s position is reliant on “that principle which can guide the Cyprus problem to a solution that can guarantee our survival as Greeks in Cyprus.”
“We must avoid continuous concessions and realise that we have overstepped certain boundaries thus subverting our own cause.”
