In AKEL, the Central Committee will soon deal with the issue and it cannot be excluded that it will also enter into a discussion of names of possible candidates, which have been the subject of reflection at the level of the Political Bureau. The party's grassroots will then have the floor to hear the members' positions. It remains unknown whether members will be invited to take a position on a specific proposal with names of possible candidates, or whether the opposite will happen, i.e. the names will come from the base to the leadership.
Based on AKEL's timetable, the decision on the candidate the party will support should be taken by spring.
However, the acceleration of the processes in DISY de facto brings the developments somewhat earlier.
The AKEL leadership sets as a first priority the search for ways to achieve broad cooperation with the opposition forces (except ELAM) in order to lay the foundations for a change of government in 2023.
To achieve this goal, it is understood that steps must be taken on both sides to achieve the necessary convergences, which should go beyond purely party desires to serve the effort of political change.
On the basis of this political decision, the AKEL leadership appears willing to make the necessary transgressions provided that the necessary convergences on the Cyprus problem and other major issues of internal governance are secured, as also stipulated by the political decision of the party's last congress.
AKEL reiterates that the priority is to define the political framework of cooperation with the other parties and then to discuss the names. In practice, however, both processes take place somewhat in parallel, at an informal level, as AKEL General Secretary Stefanos Stefanou recently stated.
According to information from the Cyprus Times, AKEL is currently moving on the basic plan, which foresees the search for partnerships with other parties. In case the cooperation effort does not bear fruit then AKEL will activate plan B and proceed on its own, as it did in the previous three elections.
Countdown
The DIKO will soon enter the presidential track, with the congress on 6 February being a milestone, as the political course on which the party will move will be set.
According to the Cyprus Times, the exploratory contacts of an informal nature between AKEL and DIKO have so far been conducted in a good atmosphere, according to sources from both parties, who confirm that despite mutual reservations, a positive basis has now been established. This has been helped by the tactic followed by the General Secretary of AKEL to avoid preclusions, seeking to remove problems from the dialogue, which in any case has enough past baggage at both political and human level. The improvement in the climate, according to the same sources, was helped by Nicolas Papadopoulos' desire to seek cooperation with the opposition forces before any contact is made with DISY. The effort to improve relations appears to be paying off, sources from AKEL and DIKO said, despite the ordeal they have gone through in recent years, and the bitterness caused by the unsuccessful attempt to elect DIKO's president to the presidency of the parliament in May.
The dilemmas
Both parties agree that first the scope for political cooperation should be explored and exhausted, in which they would like to see other parties, such as EDEK and the Movement of Ecologists, join, in order to create the conditions for success and then go deeper into the nomenclature. Other names will be on the table in addition to those that have seen the light of day so far. Based on the limited information available from the two parties, DIKO has as a starting point the candidacy of its President, Nicolas Papadopoulos, which AKEL no longer excludes, as it used to do, but neither does it prefer it. The party itself is also concerned about the scenario of Papadopoulos' candidacy, since they are weighing the pros and cons of such a prospect. "Under no circumstances do we want him to be a candidate," a party source told the Cyprus Times.
From the DIKO side, reservations are being raised about Achilleas Demetriades because of his positions on the Cyprus problem, while for Tasos Christofides, there are concerns about his name recognition. There are reservations about George Pamporidis on both sides, however, the name remains on the table, because despite the weaknesses, dominated by his party background and his service in the Anastasiades government, he has elements that are compatible with the profile of a presidential candidate.
Recall that DIKO's ballot to AKEL for Nikos Christodoulides was not successful after Hezekia Papaioannou made it clear that she is not discussing such a possibility. The scenario of supporting the former foreign minister is still being suggested by DIKO officials but the leadership is not warm. In any case, DIKO and AKEL are following Christodoulides' moves with interest, with officials of both parties expressing certainty that he will eventually be a candidate.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
