DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades warned yesterday that party members were free to express their views until Saturday, when the party’s supreme council will formally decide who to support in the elections. After that, they should be ready to face the consequences of their actions.
Several DISY deputies have openly disputed the party’s initial decision to support President Glafcos Clerides’ bid for re-election, suggesting Attorney-general Alecos Markides would be a better choice.
DISY deputy Rikkos Erotocritou yesterday said Clerides should have second thoughts about his decision to run, adding that Markides provided undisputed and reliable political continuity of Clerides himself.
Clerides said he was seeking re-election but would only stay in power for 16 months during which he would focus on the Cyprus problem and see through the island’s European Union accession course.
Erotocritou said a potential agreement on the Cyprus problem was not the critical point.
What would be critical was the transitional period following the agreement, Erotocritou said.
The DISY deputy said he respected Clerides’ political wisdom and contribution to the country, adding however that, “handling and implementing the United Nations plan needs political and biological endurance” and a long-term presence at the wheel of the state.
Commenting on Anastassiades’ warning that DISY officials could only talk until the supreme council’s decision on Saturday, Erotocritou wondered if they would be fitted with a muzzle after that.
But Anastassiades yesterday was adamant: DISY officials have the right until Saturday to express their views freely about the presidential elections.
Commenting on a dinner on Tuesday night, involving seven deputies who apparently supporting Markides, the DISY chief said food was not prohibited.
“It is everyone’s right to have their views until the supreme council convenes,” Anastassiades said.
He added that after that everybody should assume their responsibilities.
“When you decided you belong to a group you are bound at the same time with the conditions or the convention of that group,” Anastassiades said.
He added: “If not, you could be free and clear from the specific group to carry your flag and behave as you wish.”
Anastassiades urged the dissidents to question their right to dispute Clerides when political personalities from other ideological backgrounds had accepted him.
“I do not want to think that instead of the country some could have personal ambitions so intense as to sacrifice the good of the country,” he said.
Concerning Markides’ claims that he has been “hit below the belt”, Anastassiades said he did not think anyone had been hit below the belt, adding: “some have been stabbed in the back and have not said a word”.
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.
