The big opposition party is entering the final stretch of decisions on the candidate it will support in the 2023 presidential election, with the names of Achilleas Dimitriadis and Andreas Mavroyiannis on the shortlist, which the leadership wants to put before the members for further action. It is still unknown whether the AKEL Central Committee will address the members with a specific recommendation in favour of one of the two, or whether it will use the discussion in the grassroots groups to listen to the pulse of the party's members on the way forward. Members' views will be put to the Central Committee, which will formulate the final proposal, which will be ratified at the extraordinary conference scheduled for the first Sunday of June.
Further manipulations and the final timetable are expected to be determined in the coming days by the Political Bureau, pending contacts that party leader Stefanos Stefanou has with leaders of other opposition parties, as part of the new round of meetings he is holding to explore the possibility of cooperation.
The big bet
From the discussion in AKEL so far, interesting elements emerge about the arguments developed around the two potential candidates, their advantages and the points that are a source of concern. AKEL's objective, as stated many times publicly by Stefanos Stefanou himself, is not a dignified presence in the logic of a "head-high defeat", as has been said, but a candidacy that creates the guarantees of victory.
AKEL officials see in Andreas Mavroyiannis the prospect of a winning campaign, as they believe he can attract voters from the centre and centre-right. There are AKEL executives who do not rule out the remote possibility of cooperation with DIKO in the first round, which seems difficult, while in the case of Achilleas Demetriades, the possibility of support from DIKO in the first round has been ruled out.
At the same time, however, attention is focused on the performance of the two until the crucial milestone of the first round. AKEL officials believe that Achilleas Demetriades' candidacy is more ready because he has been running for several months and is close to the party's positions on the major issue, which is none other than the Cyprus problem, as well as on a number of other key issues, such as corruption, meritocracy and the need to create a modern state. On the other hand, AKEL believes that any choice of Andreas Mavroyiannis has multiple political, communication and other challenges for AKEL, as the Greek Cypriot negotiator's narrative so far on the handling of the Cyprus problem, and in particular in Crans Montana, has not been compatible with AKEL's narrative, but with the diametrically opposed positions of the President of the Republic. In Mavroyiannis's favour, according to AKEL officials, are his European and international profile, his cooperation with all Presidents, his experience in foreign policy issues and his image of a technocrat, without political or other baggage from the past.
The battle of the second round
The scenarios being studied in AKEL take into account the scenario that may be formed in the second round for Mavroyiannis or Demetriades, depending on the runner-up that the left-wing party's chosen candidate will face. AKEL estimates that with Averof Neophytou as the runner-up, the second round will be a completely new electoral process, which is open to any result, while in case of a qualification of Nikos Christodoulides, the facts will be much more difficult for the candidate supported by AKEL, especially if the former Foreign Minister is supported in the first round by DIKO and other opposition parties, which AKEL would like to have on its side in the run-off.
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