Kostas Kyriacou, known as ‘Outopos’, is a farmer, who studied philosophy at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is divorced with three children. He hopes to create four city-states in Cyprus: three for Greek Cypriots and one for Turkish Cypriots. Weddings would be forbidden and free love abound. He calls for “an Earth without mountains, an endless valley which could feed and nourish 57 billion”. His goal is for a single world government; a unique language and culture. In contrast to the three main candidates, he seems committed to his beliefs, as crazy as they seem.
Solon Georgiou, (Independent) is a retired administrator of Cyprus Airways. His slogan is From the People, For the People. “After much reflection, and with full understanding of the responsibility I have towards my compatriots, my aim is to solve the problems faced by businesses freed of political intervention. My mind is free of political distortions or financial commitments,” he says. On his website somebody wrote: “With that mindset, given that Cypriots are donkeys, the president must be one also; better the son of Annou remains,” referring to Christofias, who is known as the son of Annou.
Makaria Antri Stylianou is assistant head of Aglantzia Primary School and a member of the Civil Defence, where she specialises in First Aid. She joined the National Guard and Ministry of Defence in 1991 and in 1993 studied at Ioannina University, where she gained a doctorate in teaching. A single parent family of four – her manifesto claims that “some steal and others pay”. She wants “a referendum here and now” concerning troika memoranda and she attacks “the past 38 years of deception inflicted on 1974 refugees by all political parties”.
Andreas Efstratiou is a businessman from Paphos. In 2003 he won 606 votes and in 2008, 713 votes. His company, Efstratiou Weddings is a rapidly expanding leader in wedding planning and organisation. “The mission is clear: To provide any kind of assistance, guidance and support to all who choose us to organise their wedding in Cyprus”! Yes Andreas, but we’re talking about presidential elections!
Loukas Stavrou (EDIK) is an artist and a pro-Hellenic nationalist who wants a new, not given, constitution and shared government with Greece, where Turkish Cypriots salute the Cyprus/Greek flag only. He wants much more ‘democracy’ at local government level His election website (National Themes) is thorough and persuasive. He paints landscapes in the style of a former German chancellor, circa 1933, but nowhere near as well. He wants us to rearm and oust the invader!
Georgios Charalambous (ELAM) stresses the need for a nationalist presence since, “no other candidate seems to be up to the challenges of the times”. ELAM is against any federal type of solution; the Cyprus problem is one of invasion and occupation by a foreign country. Golden Dawn’s MP, Ioannis Lagos expressed his full support of ELAM while recalling GD’s rapid rise in Greece, certain that ELAM will follow a similar path and soon take its rightful place in the ‘hearts of Hellenism’ in Cyprus.
Praxoulla Antoniadou (EDI) who heads the United Democrats (former president Vassiliou’s now defunct party) said times are so tough that “we would be unworthy of being called a political party if we did not state our presence with our proposals … especially since we assessed that none of the other candidates offer any prospect of hope for the country.” She hopes to continue singing (out of tune) and dancing her way to the top with her husband on TV shows. We all love her, but not for president!
Lakis Iounnou (LASOK) believes that now is the time for change and for people to take a stand against “what is taken for granted in Cyprus”. He worked in London at citizen advice bureaus and has a legal background and an English wife. He hopes to attract the Anglo-Cypriot voter as well as those of non-Cypriot origins with the right to vote. But there aren’t too many of the latter, Lakis!
Georgios Lillikas of no specific party, supported by EDEK, EVROKO (part) and Greens (part), Stavros Malas of AKEL and Nicos Anastasiades of DISY, supported by DIKO (part) EVROKO (part) and Greens (part) need no introduction.
In total, 11 candidates of which the last three are the only realistic contenders, having featured last Monday evening on a TV ‘head to head’, where Nicos was his usual cocky and domineering self, at one point losing his temper and often interrupting Stavros, who bravely defended the same old ‘party line’. Georgios was calmly ‘holding back the night’ by repeating his ‘questionable’ proposals for getting Cyprus out of the ungodly mess that Stavros and his lot caused and Nicos and his lot will only perpetuate. He promised to rid the country of the ‘old guard’ and introduce ‘new young blood’.
Unfortunately, TV questioners did not ask Nicos to respond to defamatory attacks against his deceased father, who was chief of police under the Nicos Sampson regime, nor ask him to declare the origin of his family fortune, which has hugely fructified in the years since he instructed party faithful to vote in favour of the Annan Plan.
Stavros was not asked to justify his personal indebtedness to banks or his sacrificial candidacy as fall guy for ‘the party’, nor was Georgios asked to explain how he managed to amass over four million euros (thus far declared) having been a mere politician all of his working life, and whether he speaks French (he studied at the Institute of Political Science in Lyon) better than Christofias speaks Russian, never mind English!
On the night, Giorgios could have been mistaken for a celebrity wax figure on loan from Madame Tussauds, and Stavros for a pubescent public school boy, while Nicos smirked superciliously, overtly confident of winning outright in the first round.
Of the three main contenders, I have a sneaky feeling that Giorgios, with his lime green necktie and suave and unflappable manner, could be our next president after Nicos Papadopoulos of DIKO resigned as party vice-president, refusing to support DISY’s Anastasiades in favour of Georgios, though any presidential power will be negated by troika memoranda. Perhaps that’s why Georgios refuses to sign one!
This week, the Royal Bank of Scotland valued our hydrocarbon wealth at between 50 and 500 billion euros. Maybe Georgios has a point, but managing such presumed wealth will require great leadership and introduction of ‘new young blood’, lest it end up in the pockets of the ‘artfully old’ and undeserving.
