By Constantinos Psillides
THE central committee of EDEK convenes on Sunday to decide whether the socialist party will hold elections only for a new party chairman – following Yiannakis Omirou’s resignation two weeks ago – or to replace the party’s entire hierarchy.
According to deputy chairman Marinos Sizopoulos, an electoral convention will take place 40 days after the central committee’s decision.
So far, Sizopoulos and deputy Giorgos Varnava appear to be the front-runners in the leadership contest. Sizopoulos has been vying for the leadership for some time and was reportedly frustrated by Omirou’s refusal to step down.
Following a press conference on Friday, Sizopoulos was asked on his bid for the top spot but declined to give a definite answer.
“What matters now is that we steer the party through a democratic procedure and schedule a party conference. Bids for chairman come after the committee finishes deliberations on these two matters.”
Sizopoulos added that some members have objections on the procedure, arguing that based on the party statute it cannot hold a conference while leaderless. To that extent, the party political bureau met earlier this week and decided to set up a legal committee to look into the matter.
“All members will be given adequate time to express their opinion and make their arguments,” said Sizopoulos, adding that he will suggest that all the proceedings are open to the media.
EDEK’s deputy chairman pointed out that if the committee decides to hold elections for every post in the party, it would take at least three months to prepare.
“This presents us with a dilemma. Will the party leader elected in 40 days be up for re-election again in three months? Will he be excluded? Can he be excluded if the party goes into full conference mode? These are questions that need to be answered by our legal team and discussed by our members,” he said.
The former party leader quit his post earlier this month with a letter addressed to Sizopoulos. His resignation followed criticism by the party’s organisational secretary, Yiannos Efstathiou in October, who described the situation in the party as problematic, and blamed Omirou.
Efstathiou had asked Omirou not to stand for a parliamentary seat in Nicosia in 2016, and not to seek re-election at the next party congress. He had asked for his proposals to be discussed by the party organs and threatened to resign if they were not. His request was ignored and he resigned from his post on January 5.
Omirou said in his letter that it would have been more honest for Efstathiou to have asked for the leader’s resignation directly.
