FOR ONCE, parties did not have to defy the laws of mathematics when claiming some measure of success in elections.
Despite the low turnout, the outcome proved a strong endorsement of partisan politics, as communist AKEL and rightwing DISY both saw their numbers go up.
The Democratic Rally could afford to pat itself on the back, after securing 35.65 per cent of the popular vote, far beating its performance in the last parliamentary elections of 2006, when it got 30.3 per cent.
Bragging rights aside, DISY had something else to celebrate: the party regained its “critical mass,” which traditionally hovered around the 35 per cent mark.
“DISY has returned to its pre-referendum numbers. In a sense, you could say that a cycle has closed,” explained Pambos Papageorgiou of the European University of Cyprus.
He was referring to the crisis engulfing the party over its stance on the Annan Plan, leading to the creation of a splinter group and then the European Party.
Ruling AKEL also could not hide their satisfaction. With 34.90 per cent of the vote, the communists can call the result a big thumbs-up to the Christofias administration.
The score was even more impressive, given that blue-collar, working class voters typically keep away from euro elections, said Papageorgiou.
“That the party managed to get their supports to go vote is a success in itself,” he added.
But the two large parties’ success has been DIKO’s loss. The centre-right party may have secured a seat in the European Parliament, but otherwise the election result was a total rout: 12.28 per cent of the popular vote compared to the 17.9 per cent of the last legislative elections.
More worryingly, its support base could be likened to a leaky bucket. Analysts calculate the party lost 8 per cent of its strength to DISY, and 3.7 per cent to AKEL.
So poor was the party’s showing that party officials did not bother putting a positive spin. From top to bottom, DIKO cadres admitted the result was a defeat.
Party boss Marios Garoyian has called an extraordinary session of the Executive Bureau for today to discuss ways out of what is widely seen as a crisis.
Commentators believe the dismal result gives DIKO the opportunity to do some house-cleaning.
Papageorgiou again: “The big question before the party now is whether they should leave the government coalition or stay. It’s just not possible any more for DIKO to be part of the coalition and at the same time allow some of its leading members to be so hostile towards the President. It’s this lack of unity that both confused and alienated the party faithful. Now they have to get this mess sorted out.”
The analyst said this was precisely the mistake that the socialists avoided—and it paid off.
“I think EDEK ran a very smart campaign: low-key, and not so much about the Cyprus problem. Their message and their target were clear: send a Cypriot socialist to the European Parliament. And they never hinted that they might abandon the ruling coalition.”
On an individual level, the outcome was a tour de force for DISY candidate Ioannis Kasoulides, who won a second term as MEP. The former presidential hopeful stood out by a mile, garnering 69,576 votes. Eleni Theocharous, of the same party, came next with 58,596, followed by AKEL’s Takis Hadjigeorgiou with 55,941.
Meanwhile DISY’s ‘wildcard’ candidate and newcomer Andreas Pitsillides, whose campaign expenses are said to have run past the million-euro mark, received 18,587 votes, a respectable number but nowhere near enough to contest the party’s big guns.
Marios Matsakis, running as an independent, had to settle for 2,697 votes—a far cry from the some 27,000 he got back in 2004 when he ran on the DIKO ticket.
Finally, the quirky Outopos was not spared the ravages of the low turnout, receiving 159 votes (or 0.05 per cent). No doubt he will again be claiming the vote was rigged.
