Party black sheep Koulias to run on DIKO ticket in May elections

Independent MP Zacharias Koulias, announced on Saturday he would be running in the upcoming parliamentary elections as a DIKO candidate.

Koulias, who was kicked out of the party in 2011, when he refused to endorse Marios Garoyian’s candidacy for House Speaker, and cast the deciding vote that elected then-EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou as chairman of the House, told state broadcaster CyBC that he accepted the party’s head Nicolas Papadopoulos’ proposal and that he would be among DIKO’s candidates for the Famagusta district.

Koulias’ inclusion in the ticket, reportedly disgruntled DIKO’s Famagusta committee members, who warned they would sit the campaign out, should the party  allow Koulias back.

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.