On the offensive over poll result

The government yesterday dismissed the notion that the outcome of Sunday’s municipal elections amounts to a thumbs-down for the AKEL administration.

Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou was responding to comments by DISY boss Nikos Anastassiades made after the final results were out on Sunday night.

 Pointing out that 26 out of the 38 candidates with DISY backing were elected to office, Anastassiades called this a show of force for the party.

 But his contentious remark was that the elections sent a clear message of disgruntlement with the administration of President Demetris Christofias.

 Going into defensive mode, the government yesterday accused DISY of seeking to turn Sunday’s result into a portent for the presidential elections of 2013.

 This attempt at polarisation, after the fact, would only lead to a further detachment of citizens from politics, said Stefanou.

 In these elections, he said, people were asked to vote for their mayors and local representatives, “and this cannot be interpreted as an assessment of the President or of the government”.

 The AKEL party itself had a slightly different take. Party leader Andros Kyprianou said AKEL managed to hold its own, despite sustaining a concerted attack from all sides, which he dubbed the “anti-AKEL front”.

 Those who tried to isolate AKEL and take political advantage of the Mari disaster and the problems of the economy have failed, Kyprianou said.

 Despite all the polemic, Kyprianou added, his party succeeded in electing six mayors that are AKEL members and eight more others that had AKEL’s backing.

 He said that while DISY initially called for the need for unity on the domestic front and said party politics should be left out of local administration, it later changed its tune.

 Of DISY’s perceived success, Kyprianou said: “They have merely absorbed some numbers for the time being.”

 In its own analysis, DIKO zeroed in on the high degree of abstention, which stood at 30 per cent overall, but rose to around 40 per cent in areas such as Limassol.

 Party spokesman Fotis Fotiou said the non-participation of voters sent a message that the public has grown disdainful of politics.

 

 

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