Diko leadership accused of selling out its members

By George Psyllides

THERE was turmoil in opposition Diko yesterday after members of the party accused their leader of selling them out.

The spat began when the Secretary of the Nicosia District Committee, Alecos Tryfonides, sent a letter to party leader Spyros Kyprianou, accusing the leadership of selling out grass-roots members whenever it suited its interests.

In his letter, Tryfonides, whose views are thought to reflect those of a substantial number of party members, accuses Kyprianou of scheming with the governing Disy leadership to obtain specific returns.

Tryfonides claims there were backstage exchanges between Kyprianou and Disy leader Nicos Anastassiades to secure the chairmanship of the House Finance Committee for Kyprianou’s son Markos.

Tryfonides claims that, in return, Diko agreed to approve the government’s tax package in parliament.

The House of Representatives passed the tax package two weeks ago.

Diko deputies Nicos Pittokopitis, Nicos Cleanthous and Zacharias Koulias nevertheless voted against the taxes, while Tassos Papadopoulos, Markos Kyprianou, Nicos Moushiouttas, Marios Matsakis and Spyros Kyprianou all voted for the package.

Kyprianou yesterday threatened the three dissidents with disciplinary action for disobeying party orders in the vote.

But Cleanthous dismissed the threat, saying the three had simply been following the party’s decision to reject the government’s first tax package, rejected by parliament in May 1998.

“There is no disciplinary issue because those deputies who voted against the taxes this time, did what had been decided by the party the first time,” Cleanthous said.

“The first time, we voted against the package because that is what the party’s executive office had decided,” he added.

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