THE PAPADOPOULOS camp is looking increasingly worried about an alliance between ideological rivals DISY and AKEL that would ensure victory over the incumbent in a second round of the elections.
Campaign spokesman George Lillikas accused the leaders of the two parties of cooking something up behind the backs of their voters with the United Democrats serving as go-betweens.
He accused the two parties of rarely criticising each other’s candidates, DISY’s Ioannis Kasoulides and AKEL’s Demetris Christofias, and of pouring all of their scorn on Tassos Papadopoulos.
Lillikas’ comments came as speculation began on a possible DISY-AKEL alliance if one of their respective candidates came up against Papadopoulos in a second round.
The first round of the elections is next Sunday and is expected to be a close race.
On Wednesday, reports said, the first tentative steps towards co-operation between the two parties were taken by DISY, which is reportedly ready to make the transition to close old wounds with AKEL. On Thursday, Christofias would not rule out speaking with DISY.
“From the start we realised that the Kasoulides and Christofias camps were focusing their fire exclusively on candidate Tassos Papadopoulos,” said Lillikas yesterday, adding that he wondered what could possibly connect the two parties.
“In due time, we realised that they were using the same arguments against Tassos Papadopoulos, while at the same time never exchanging criticism between themselves.”
Now it seemed the time had come for public compliments and overtures between Mr Christofias and DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades, he added.
“We don’t know, but we wonder what is being cooked up behind the backs of the voters, and what has changed from last year when Mr Christofias declared he could not have a dialogue with DISY because the party was in chaos,” Lillikas said.
He put the new-found links down to the United Democrats – reviled among opponents of the Annan plan – whose founding members came from AKEL and went on to hold key positions in the DISY government of Glafcos Clerides.
Both DISY and AKEL are being coy about the speculation, both saying yesterday they were sure their respective candidates would make it through. AKEL parliamentary spokesman Nicos Katsourides said anyone from DISY or Papadopoulos’ party DIKO was welcome to vote for Christofias in the second round.
But political analyst Christoforos Christoforou said yesterday there was a strong possibility the two parties would co-operate.
“In recent years, the gap between DISY and AKEL has softened and you will find some from each party willing to vote for the other camp,” he said.
However, he said no decision could be taken until after the first round because it would depend on who would go through.
A DISY-AKEL pact would be hard for many DISY voters to swallow, he said, because polls showed that one third of DISY voters would support Christofias in a second round and one third would support Papadopoulos.
He said DISY could call for an open vote, but “the crucial factor is whether they decide to support one another with a pact”.
“They may have some problems with some of their staunch supporters, but they will also have a strong argument for power sharing because they can win. This strengthens the argument in favour,” said Christoforou.
He agreed the Papadopoulos camp was worried. “But of course there is no guarantee that he will get through to the second round either,” he added.
