— AKEL: 32.3%, DISY: 31.4%, DIKO: 19.9%
The first opinion polls ahead of the May 21 parliamentary elections has put the traditional rival parties clearly in the lead, with the President’s ruling party making a strong comeback and other parties diminishing their voter power.
Of the 1451 respondents who took part in the Evresis/Antenna TV poll aired just before midnight Tuesday, some 32.3% said they would vote for the communist AKEL party candidates, with the main coalition partner retaining its voter strength.
The main opposition Democratic Rally (DISY) showed a surprising rate of retention, garnering 31.4% of the votes in the poll.
This means that DISY did not lose any of its supporters, or has gained new voters, despite four of its deputies abandoning its ranks and joining forces with other parties.
President Tassos Papadopoulos’ own Democratic Party (DIKO) seems to have made the biggest gains, with the poll indicating some 19.9% votes in its favour, returning to the party’s old glory days of two decades ago when its founder, Spyros Kyprianou, was in power.
This would also suggest that the ruling party has improved its standing ever since Papadopoulos won the presidential elections in February 2003 on a coalition platform that included the social democrats EDEK, the nationalist New Horizons, the Greens and other smaller parties.
EDEK has not gained any ground, despite having two ministers in the present Cabinet, which should have given the party an improved public appeal. While analysts suggest the party has lost support to DIKO, it is feared that the final outcome may be worse as its legendary founder, Dr Vassos Lyssarides, has decided not to join the election ticket.
The New Horizons, that has a single parliamentary seat, transformed into the European Party (EvroKo) last year to absorb three backbenchers who fled from DISY, headed by Demetris Syllouris who now heads EvroKo. The party’s new deputy leader is New Horizons founder Nicos Koutsou and the 3.8% in the Evresis/Antenna poll may give these two barely enough support to enter parliament, let alone get a third deputy in.
The Greens’ George Perdikis has long declared that his single-seat party might get a second deputy in the House of Representatives, which was also suggested by the opinion poll that gave them a 3% turnout.
The opposition United Democrats (EDI) that was created after a merger between former President George Vassiliou’s Free Democrats and communist backbenchers headed by former government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou. The 1.6% of the intended votes garnered in the poll makes it doubtfull if the party will get a second deputy in addition to its present MP Androulla Vassiliou.
Finally, the European Democracy (EvroDy) party, headed by former DISY deputy Prodromos Prodromou, got 0.8% and failed to get past the benchmark 1.5% needed to have any hopes of entering the House of Representatives.
Just over 500,000 Greek Cypriots and some 1,000 Turkish Cypriots will go to the polls on May 21 to elect 56 new members of parliament.
The House of Representatives will be dissolved on April 13 and elections called the next day.
Cyprus has an executive president elected directly by the people, while parliament is a legislative and regulatory body with the power to introduce or halt new laws and approve or block state budgets.
The record number of voters will cast their votes in 1300 polling stations and the whole process is expected to cost the state about 2.5 million Cyprus pounds (5.3 million dollars, 4.3 million euros).
It is unclear how many Turkish Cypriot candidates will contest a parliamentary seat for the first time, with Ali Erel, the former leader of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce and a number of other Turkish Cypriots appealing to the Minister of Interior on Tuesday claiming their seats based on the 1960 Constitution that envisaged two communal chambers in a mixed parliament.
However, Turkish Cypriot poet Nese Yiasin will contest a seat on the EDI ticket.
A further three non-voting seats are also reserved to the ethnic and religious minorities living on the island — the Armenians, the Catholic Maronites who hail from neighbouring Lebanon, and the Catholic Latins, who trace their roots to the Venetians who ruled the island up to the 15th century.
Other proposals to allow some 20,000 Cypriots who live abroad to vote in overseas election centres, or for Internet ballots, have been rejected in the past.
As is traditional, the main political parties are expected to subsidise special flights to allow overseas Cypriots and students to travel to Cyprus with reduced air fares and combine the trip with a short-break holiday.
Fears that the election date would clash with the Eurovision song contest that will be held in Athens the previous night with Cypriot-born Anna Vishy singing the Greek entry, subsided, with fewer Cypriots wanting to travel to the Greek capital for the event.
However, many will remained glued to their television sets to watch the musical show that is more popular in Cyprus than a number of other countries within the network of the European Broadcasting Union.
