THE BUZZ around the efforts of the minority opposition parties to field a common candidate in next year’s presidential elections finally fizzled out yesterday after the four parties conceded defeat.
EVROKO leader Demetris Syllouris announced to the press after a final meeting of the heads of DIKO, EDEK, EVROKO and the Greens that the effort had failed.
“The parties have decided to go back to their collective organs and re-evaluate whether there is any scope for further work in the efforts of the in-between space,” he said, referring to the moniker adopted by the four parties to describe their political leanings between the dominant left and right-wing parties in Cyprus.
Asked when the parties would conclude their period of reflection, he clarified that the project can be considered a failure: “We must assume that the effort which began with a deadline to reach a conclusion by the end of May did not work.”
Syllouris made a final appeal to all parties to consider his proposal to change the procedure and either back a candidate jointly agreed between DIKO and EDEK or else produce a list of potential candidates, and let the followers and friends of the four parties vote for one name on that list.
EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou expressed regret that “critical differences” on matters of principles regarding the character of the candidate and procedure for choosing them as well as “the continuous introduction of new terms and conditions about the candidate” obstructed efforts to reach a positive conclusion.
Asked if EDEK will now seek to collaborate with EVROKO, Omirou said he won’t rule anything out, but will wait to consult with his party in the coming days before commenting.
DIKO leader Marios Garoyian put the failure to form a ‘third way’ in Cypriot politics down to different approaches and different interpretations of principle and political ethics.
“DIKO does not intend to support a candidate who has an expiry date on the first Sunday of the presidential elections,” he said, hinting that his party wanted to get the next president elected, not garner enough votes to haggle for power in a second round of voting between the two finalist candidates.
Greens leader Ioanna Panaoyiotou also expressed regret at the collapse of efforts, saying the Greens supported a more democratic process of choosing a candidate and refused to enter the game of submitting and withdrawing potential candidate names which led to the failure.
All four parties will hold internal discussions to decide the next step forward.
According to state broadcaster CyBC, Garoyian had set three preconditions to choosing a potential candidate in yesterday’s meeting. He ruled out the prospect of choosing a party leader, effectively excluding Omirou’s reported candidacy. He said no candidate who has already announced his intention to run should be chosen by the ‘in-between’ space, ruling out former minister Giorgos Lillikas who has already entered the race as an independent, along with DISY’s Nicos Anastassiades. A final condition was that any candidate should come from DIKO, which is the biggest of the minority parties.
Based on numerous press reports, EDEK’s next move could be to team up with EVROKO and support Lillikas’ bid or else field their own leader at least for the first round of voting.
EVROKO will likely wait to see what EDEK will do, while the Greens will choose who to support once all names are on the table.
As for DIKO, Garoyian will have to explain to his party why the efforts of the in-betweeners failed. A meeting with AKEL in the near future should not be ruled out.