THE THREE main presidential contenders yesterday intensified their campaigns as they entered the final stretch of the race.
With opinion polls barred since Sunday, the candidates yesterday began their final effort to convince the voters. While all three election campaigns have so far offered a wide range of issues for debate, with only five days to go until campaigning winds up on Friday, the Cyprus problem has once again taken over as the issue of the day.
Incumbent President Tassos Papadopoulos, AKEL leader Demetris Christofias and DISY candidate and Euro MP Ioannis Kasoulides are the main frontrunners to be the next President of the Republic of Cyprus.
Opinion polls have shown all three candidates neck and neck, with Papadopoulos having a slight edge over the others. However, with many voters still undecided or not replying to poll questions, and the vote of thousands of Cypriots being flown in from abroad uncertain, the outcome of the election remains anyone’s guess. If the polls are to be believed, one thing is for certain, no outright winner will emerge this Sunday, making a run-off vote the following Sunday almost a given.
All three are intensifying their campaign in the coming days, with special events planned, including concerts, increased advertising, door to door visits, delivery of printed material and radio, TV and newspaper interviews. All three candidates believe they will go through to the run-off and as such, refuse to discuss potential alliances in the event they fail to get passed the first round.
The three main candidates will participate in a second live televised debate this Thursday, with the Cyprus question being the only item on the agenda. The last debate, though restricted in scope and staid in value, was watched by seven out of 10 television viewers.
A spokesman for the Kasoulides campaign team said the former foreign minister had personal interviews planned with the three main television channels Mega, Antenna and Sigma this week. Tomorrow, he will announce the release of his election manifesto, a compilation of all election pledges made throughout his campaign. On Friday, Kasoulides will hold a final election rally at the Conference Centre in Nicosia at 7.30pm.
Members of the Christofias and Papadopoulos campaign teams were unavailable for comment yesterday on the contenders’ final schedules. Under Cyprus election law, all electioneering must end at midnight on Friday.
Speaking on the Cyprus problem over the past few days, Papadopoulos said he wanted a solution “with the right content” that would appeal to all Cypriots and which would reunite the country, economy, society and institutions as well as safeguard human rights.
“Together we have achieved a lot and I call on you to help achieve even more. My vision is a Cyprus free of Turkish troops, where our children will live in safety and enjoy the freedom that will give them the chance to plan for their future,” he said.
He described the so-called Gambari agreement of July 2006 as “the only road to the resumption of substantive negotiations” for a mutually acceptable solution.
Addressing an election rally, Christofias said: “Dithering with regard to the solution we want does not help; rejecting or questioning the bizonal, bicommunal federation and federation in general, seeking a unitary state and references to a new basis for a solution can only create confusion and cast doubt on our will for a settlement, among the international community.”
He noted that his party had credibility “because over the years we have remained firm in the principles of the solution we are seeking and the basis of that solution”. The AKEL leader noted that his party enjoyed the trust of the vast majority of Turkish Cypriots, which he described as a “powerful weapon we shall use to find a common language with them”.
In his remarks on Sunday, Kasoulides said the people wanted to hear how the candidates intended to achieve their objectives and not general slogans.
“We have suffered setbacks because of the way Papadopoulos has handled the ‘no’ vote in the April 2004 referendum and not because the people of Cyprus rejected the plan,” he said. The Euro MP criticised Papadopoulos for delaying five years to display his will to negotiate a settlement.
Yesterday, he asked voters to choose between a modern, European Cyprus with authority abroad and the present “quagmire and regression”.
“Will we listen and trust in the new generation or will we be lured by division and fear of the past?” he asked.
