By George Psyllides
DISY deputy Prodromos Prodromou yesterday apologised to party members for the bitterness he may have caused by supporting outgoing Attorney-general Alecos Markides in last week’s presidential elections.
“I have to say that my choice to support Alecos Markides, I believe, was the correct path; for me it was a decision of conscience, but I realise that for a large number of DISY faithful this position is not understood and has caused bitterness,” Prodromou said.
“To them I want to say I’m sorry, and at the same time stress that they should not be complacent with the reasoning that the elections were lost because of Alecos Markides’ candidacy.”
Prodromou is one of five DISY members who openly supported Markides’ candidacy and were later blamed for dashing the re-election chances of President Glafcos Clerides – who was formally backed by DISY.
Last Sunday’s election defeat has sparked a bitter war of words between DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades and the five dissidents.
Anastassiades initially vowed to expel the ‘gang of five’, though he is now having second thoughts; the rebels put the blame for the election failure squarely on the DISY chief, whom they urged to resign.
“Neither the chairman of the party, nor his associates in the leadership of the party, nor the ministers whose record was dumped on the President as an unpaid bill have assumed their responsibilities,” Prodromou said.
He added that “black Sunday” had been a painful experience, not only because the elections had been lost but because the people of DISY were left feeling they were lost unjustly and ingloriously.
“In addition to all this, the image we conveyed with the chairman of the party in the forefront trying to shake off any responsibility from his shoulders and find scapegoats, and everything we were forced to say in the heat of the moment were surely not what DISY people were expecting to hear that night,” Prodromou said.
He said all this should be discussed to find out what had really gone wrong, and the page should be turned and any disputes left behind on the way to unity.
Prodromou said he felt it was necessary to apologise before DISY’s supreme council on Saturday where he expected a real probe into the causes of the defeat.
The supreme council is scheduled to discuss the election defeat but could also look into whether there are grounds for disciplinary measures – expulsion – against the ‘Five’.
DISY could soon be heading for elections, where Anastassiades’ leadership looks set to face a challenge.
One challenger could be Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides, who has already said he would run if it would help unite the party.
Cassoulides said yesterday the current crisis had been simmering for quite some time, but the reasons behind it should be sought on Saturday.
He said DISY did not have the luxury of being divided, and urged the dissidents once more to do their self-criticism because their political arguments throughout the campaign had frustrated Clerides’ bid.
Another DISY member, Communications Minister Averoff Neophytou, said he was considering running for the position of deputy chairman, but only if his candidacy would not affect the unity of the party.
He said his personal ambitions would take a back seat for the sake of unity but if the logic of having elections at all levels predominated, then he would be standing for the position.
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.
