FOLLOWING her failure to get elected as DIKO deputy leader on Sunday, Antigone Papadopoulou yesterday questioned how many new voters who had participated in the elections were real party supporters.
Papadopoulou said she had “seen with her own eyes” voters affiliated with DISY, AKEL and EDEK casting their votes on March 15.
The DIKO deputy and House Finance Committee chairwoman, who lost to deputy leader incumbent George Colocassides, questioned what purpose non-DIKO supporters had in what was an internal party process.
Nicholas Papadopoulos, son of the late president Tassos Papadopoulos and DIKO hardliner, said the accusations were serious and called on Papadopoulou to bring them to the party leadership for investigation.
Papadopoulos, who beat Angelos Votsis and Constantinos Panayi to secure the position of vice president, admitted that Papadopoulou had raised the issue earlier this year.
“I brought this to the Executive Bureau’s attention in January but no one picked it up then. They are only commenting on it now,” she said.
Papadopoulou said her intentions were not to challenge the results or to complain.
“The charter needs to change so that new members cannot participate in elections within a month or two [of registering with the party]. There needs to be an identification process whereby new voters are confirmed DIKO supporters and will remain active within the party for years to come and not disappear when the elections pass,” she said.
The question was raised when 5,000 new voters registered with the party in the last two months, giving them access to Sunday’s election process.
On Friday when weekly satirical newspaper Pontiki ran an article on the 5,000 new DIKO members, Papadopoulou said it was “inconceivable” and that people who made such accusations had to back them up with evidence so that they could be investigated.
“But I don’t believe something like this,” she said. “It’s inconceivable because for someone to register as member of the party they have to go through the local and district committees and each application is checked by the treasurer and other party members.”
Nicholas Papadopoulos said yesterday the problem lay with the party charter and not the voters.
“It is not the voters fault but the charter that needs to be changed,” he said.
The deputy, who also sits on the House Finance Committee, pointed out that there had been several hundred candidates running for the posts of deputy leader, vice president, general secretary, and the 15-member Executive Bureau and the 120-member Central Committee.
Bearing this in mind, he said, each candidate could have easily recruited six or seven of their own supporters to join the party, thus explaining the 5,000.
Papadopoulou was in agreement with this logic.
“It is true that with 500 candidates registering about five or six supporters of their own that this would have made up the number of new voters. Nevertheless an identification process needs to be in place whereby they show they are active DIKO supporters and that prevents them from voting after a month. They should be made to wait six months to a year before being allowed to take part in party elections,” she said.
