WITH 24 hours to go to the Archbishopric elections, the battle lines between the contenders have been drawn. The bumpy ride predicted is materialising, with allegations flying yesterday that rival bishops were pinching each other’s voters.
Supporters of Kykkos Bishop Nikiforos, one of the frontrunners for the vacant throne, charged that several of his side’s electors had mysteriously appeared on another bishop’s list.
The way the elections work is that the public votes for 1,400 representatives – mostly laypersons – in the first round. Next these 1,400 will nominate 100 Electors, who will then be joined by 33 ex officio clerics voting directly for the Archbishop in separate ballots.
Each camp has published lists of its representatives. Next to each name is the number that will appear on the official ballot, so that voters know beforehand whom to choose on Election Day.
The twist is that voting is horizontal – not only is it possible to vote for more than one representative (in most cases it is the norm), but it is permissible to vote for representatives rooting for different bishops.
Yesterday, Nikiforos’ camp said that one of their representatives – a certain Father Emilianos – had somehow appeared on the list of Limassol Bishop Athanasios.
Athanasios’ supporters hit back at the claims, saying that Emilianos had originally been on their side but was coerced to join the Kykkos bishop.
“He suffered untold pressure from his daughter, who supports Kykkos, to withdraw his support for Holy Athanasios,” asserted Giorgos Eliades, spokesman for the Athanasios support group.
But the cleric’s daughter told CyBC radio yesterday that her father was not at all a supporter of Athanasios; in fact, she said, the elderly Emilianos had been duped into signing a piece of paper indicating he was a representative of the Limassol bishop.
And Paphos bishop Chrysostomos, the caretaker of the Church, said he knew of at least five or six cases where this sort of tampering resulted in representatives pulling out of the race.
According to Chrysostomos, one representative of Athanasios, running in the Paphos district, had been forced to withdraw after being threatened by a rival bishopric that they would no longer buy his grapes.
Meanwhile controversy continued to rage over AKEL’s open endorsement of the Kykkos bishop.
Father Paraskevas Agathonas, a spokesman for bishop Athanasios, said the communist party was carrying out a door-to-door canvassing for Nikiforos’ benefit.
He also wondered why AKEL chief Demetris Christofias, a self-declared atheist, had suddenly immersed himself in Church affairs.
“Has Mr Christofias changed his stance towards God?” mused Agathonas.
He went on to suggest that Nikiforos was already putting on airs, behaving like an Ethnarch – or national leader – presumably because of his endorsement by AKEL and the political community at large.
“His speech at the rally [on Wednesday night] was reminiscent of the speeches by the late Archbishop Makarios,” Agathonas opined.
The rebuttal promptly came from Archimandrite Isaias Kykkotis, Nikiforos’ chief campaign staffer.
Kykkotis said the fact AKEL backed Nikiforos did not mean the bishop would be obligated to the party in the future.
“I don’t understand this reasoning. Why should we not accept AKEL’s support? We discriminate against no one,” Kykkotis added.
A plea for harmony between the bickering bishops came yesterday from none other than President Tassos Papadopoulos.
Shortly after arriving from New York, Papadopoulos urged the sides to cease trading barbs, and called on the public to turn out en masse for the elections.
Voting tomorrow will take place from 10am to 1pm, and then from 2pm to 6pm. Polling stations may extend their opening hours if and where the need arises.
