CENTRE-RIGHT DIKO wants to take legal action against left-wing coalition partner AKEL over the ruling party’s pre-election emblem and slogan but the row appears to symbolise a growing rift in the government partnership.
The spat between the two parties yesterday showed no signs of abating, just a week before the European Parliament elections.
DIKO is objecting to the use of a slogan on the AKRL voting slip where it says only the party logo should appear.
AKEL’s includes the slogan: ‘I seek, I vote, I win. Together in Europe’, has provoked DIKO, which reckons the presence of the slogan violates election laws.
But this was rejected by Chief Returning Officer Lazaros Savvides yesterday, who said there was no such issue.
“In no stage of the pre-election campaign, in no meeting that we had with all party representatives, nor during the approval of the draft voting slip, was any objection submitted from anyone; no complaints were made,” said Savvides.
The Electoral Service, he added, feels AKEL’s emblem was totally legal and therefore accepted it.
“From the moment that no issue was raised during our various meetings, the Electoral Service feels there is no problem and for this reason we have printed and prepared all the voting slips,” said Savvides.
The matter was brought to light by Politis newspaper yesterday, which claimed that DIKO had appointed its vice president, MP and lawyer Nicolas Papadopoulos to examine whether the party had a case.
DIKO general secretary Kyriacos Kenevezos yesterday said the party felt there was an issue and it needed to be investigated. He added that DIKO had an obligation to raise this issue.
“To make matters clear, along with the AKEL emblem on the voting slip, it is accompanied by the slogan: “he who is assertive wins”. This is AKEL’s motto on all the billboards, it is its prototype; it is the image with which it has fought this election battle. I will put his to you. If DIKO wrote as a motto, “no more backing down” do you think that if DIKO had this motto, no other political party would have objected?”
In response, AKEL general secretary Stavros Evagorou said DIKO was trying to harm AKEL and the President of the Republic.
“This is certainly a surprise when you hear that a party you are collaborating with, a party which had never raised this issue in all the party consultations about emblems and slogans, to see in the newspapers that they are considering legal action,” said Evagorou. “It is something we are definitely saddened by; to see coalition parties in the government to be examining legal measures against us. It is their right to do whatever they want, but we feel that our friends at the Democratic Party are trying with every means possible to harm AKEL on one hand and the President of the Republic on the other.”
Meanwhile, Kenevezos has challenged AKEL to publicly state that it wishes to put an end to the partnership.
“We will continue to express our views, including when we disagree, and this will not end. If of course this annoys AKEL, they should publicly tell the people that they wish to end the partnership.
