With the phrase "everything is open", top AKEL executives respond to the question of whether there is any indication of where things are heading as to which of Andreas Mavroyiannis or Achilleas Demetriades the major opposition party will decide to support in the presidential elections.
Yesterday's hour-long meeting of the Political Bureau will continue today, and under normal circumstances the body will formulate the proposal to the Central Committee, which will meet over the weekend. The proposal has not yet been formulated, therefore, the following questions remain unanswered at present:
1. The Central Committee will put the question of Dimitriadis or Mavroyiannis to the party members or will it propose only one of the two?
2. Will both names of Mavroyiannis and Dimitriadis go to the Central Committee, or will the Politburo go with only one name to the Central Committee, which will then refer it to the members essentially for ratification?
In addition to these two questions, it remains unknown whether the Central Secretariat, i.e. the core of the party's leadership team, will submit a recommendation to the Politburo on the above?
In addition to these two questions, it remains unknown whether the Central Secretariat, i.e. the core of the party's leadership team, will submit a recommendation to the Politburo on the above. At Wednesday's meeting of the General Secretariat there was no proposal from the Secretariat, but it is not excluded that there will be one at today's meeting.
The Cyprus Times reports that Stefanos Stefanou and the other members of the Secretariat have thoroughly informed the Politburo about the proceedings so far.
The Cyprus Times reports that Stefanos Stefanou and the other members of the Secretariat have thoroughly informed the Politburo about the proceedings so far. They referred in particular to the meetings with the two potential candidates for the nomination, with whom there was an exhaustive discussion of their positions on a number of priority issues for AKEL, such as the Cyprus problem, the economy, education, health, social policy, corruption issues, the modernisation of the state, and others.
Both are suitable
According to the same information, the AKEL leadership is of the universal opinion that from the answers received from Mavroyiannis and Demetriades, both meet the criteria set by the party for the presidential candidate. As far as purely electoral issues are concerned, AKEL executives identify a number of advantages in both cases, with no shortage of concerns about aspects of the issues that the party will be called upon to manage during the electoral process. "There is no such question" was the answer of an AKEL PGA member, which was confirmed by another part of the body if there is a mood in favour of one of the two. "Everything is open, we are not going with a predetermined decision," he noted and underlined that the procedure followed can also be considered unprecedented in the sense that they want to exhaust the debate so that the result is such that it mobilises all the party's forces in the effort for a successful outcome of the electoral battle. "This is a positive element that must be credited to Stefanos Stefanou," noted a member of the AKEL PGA.
Danger of introversion
The continuation of the long session today, and therefore the postponement of the Political Bureau's proposal, was deemed necessary due to the fatigue of the members of the House but serves another objective of the AKEL leadership: The avoidance of leaks that will put the party in a process of introversion and create a negative climate that will weaken the effort and certainly undermine the dynamics of whichever candidate qualifies. The example of the reactions around the name of George Pamporidis is a bad precedent that they do not want to repeat and fuel unnecessary debates. Therefore, therefore, an effort will be made to ensure that whatever decision the SG comes up with today is not made public before the crucial Central Committee meeting this weekend. The Central Committee will come up with a recommendation to party members in a dialogue that will last about three weeks.
The conclusions of the dialogue at the AKEL grassroots level will come back to the Central Committee (after going through the provincial committees), which will prepare the final recommendation to the extraordinary conference on 5 June, at which a decision will be taken on the candidate with whom the battle of the presidential elections will be fought.
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