DISY chief Nicos Anastasiades said yesterday the people had “honoured his party” in Sunday’s elections, as the main opposition party savoured an electoral victory which gave them two extra seats in the 56-seat legislature.
Ruling AKEL was in second place while abstentions reached record-breaking levels with one in five staying away.
The results saw 18 new MPs elected.
DISY managed to gain the support of around 10,000 more people than in the previous parliamentary elections in 2006 – a 3.75 per cent rise and two extra seats – that saw the party first past the post with 34.27 per cent of the vote and 20 MPs. The party registered its highest level of support since 1996.
DISY chief Nicos Anastasiades said the people had “honoured his party with their vote”, adding that it was time to unite forces in a bid to tackle the important problems faced by the country.
He was echoed by his AKEL counterpart, Andros Kyprianou, who urged his fellow politicians yesterday “to turn the page” and create better relations with the aim of solving the many and significant problems the country faced.
Kyprianou said cooperation was necessary on the economic front and his party was prepared to cooperate with everyone on condition that measures would not hurt workers’ rights.
AKEL saw a 1.36 per cent – or around 1,000 votes – boost in support in the polls to 32.67 per cent – handing the party an extra seat for a total of 19.
AKEL’s government partner DIKO saw a 2.2 per cent fall – 15.7 per cent – in support in Sunday’s election, cutting the number of its seats by two to nine.
But DIKO leader Marios Garoyian voiced satisfaction yesterday over the result that was achieved in spite of those who expected it to emerge weak and lose its traditional role of kingmaker.
“Our concern in the election was to prove wrong those who doubted DIKO’s role and wanted our end,” Garoyian said.
He added that his party’s priorities now were the Cyprus problem and exiting the economic crisis.
Socialists EDEK and the Green party recorded slight losses but retained their seats – five and one respectively.
The other seat was lost by EUROKO, which suffered a 1.91 per cent drop to 3.88 per cent.
The party now has two seats.
Chairman Demitris Syllouris said he was disappointed as the seat had been lost by just 230 votes.
“This concerns and saddens us but on the other hand we remain a quite strong team,” Syllouris said.
He added that EUROKO will work harder to put its message through to the over 100,000 people who did not vote maintaining in this way the status quo instead of giving a message of change.
Official results showed that 21.32 per cent or 113,282 voters out of the 531,463 eligible to vote, stayed away from the ballot box.
The record number has caused alarm among parties who had failed to see the signs during previous polls.
President Demetris Christofias said abstention was also a winner.
“It should be of concern to all. Abstention is not a healthy phenomenon for our political system. It sends messages which we should all analyse and interpret,” the president said.
Christofias congratulated the parties that secured representation in parliament and urged dialogue and consensus among parties.
“We hope to leave behind the climate of discord that characterised the run up to the election,” the president said.
