Socialist EDEK in turmoil over party’s hard line

By George Psyllides

FRESH trouble was brewing at EDEK on Wednesday after the head of the socialist party’s Paphos district committee accused the leadership of staging a coup to get rid of him.

Giorgos Nikandrous’ accusations followed the resignation of ten of the committee’s 17 members who sought to convene a district conference to elect a new leadership.

However, four of the ten members have since rescinded their signatures, claiming they had been duped.

Reports said more members could follow suit.

Nikandrou attributed the affair to an effort by EDEK chairman Marinos Sizopoulos to depose him because of his disagreement with the party’s line on the Cyprus problem.

Nikandrou had disagreed when Sizopoulos denounced the bizonal, bicommunal federation as a basis for reunification.

“The party leadership, acting in a conspiratorial manner, put pressure on members of the district committee to sign a resignation letter to dissolve the committee and hold elections,” Nikandrou said.

He said the leadership’s actions were a coup and politically unethical.

The matter was scheduled to be discussed by EDEK’s polit bureau on Wednesday evening.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.