Moments after the last vote was cast in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, the television debates and analyses turned to the next presidential elections in 2008.
Even though the 56-member House of Representatives is a mainly legislative body, the strength of the various ruling coalition parties suggests that President Tassos Papadopoulos will seek a second term in office in direct elections by the people.
The Democratic Party (DIKO) headed by Papadopoulos, was the biggest winner of the day, gaining three percentage points and winning 17.9% of the votes, earning two new seats in parliament, rising to eleven deputies.
His main coalition partner, the communist AKEL, lost two seats but remained the largest political grouping in parliament with 18 deputies and 31.2% of the votes.
Rival centre-right Democratic Rally (DISY) also ended the day with 18 deputies, but with 30.3% of the votes, three percentage points less than the previous elections in 2001 giving the main opposition party a net gain of three new seats, after four members left in 2004 in arguments over the handling of the United Nations “Annan Plan”.
“AKEL has been and will remain the first party of Cyprus, a democratic communist party unlike any other in Europe,” declared party Secretary General and outgoing parliament president Demetris Christofias.
He also praised the success of the coalition government ensuring his re-election as president of the House in exchange for Papadopoulos’ candidacy two years from now.
Had AKEL recorded an increase, it would have the upper hand in determining the next candidate for the presidential elections.
But DIKO’s new deputies, that include the president’s son, Nicholas Papadopoulos, trumpeted their party’s rise and avoided any mention of coalition partners, except for the smaller socialist party EDEK that also gained voters and rose to 8.9%, increasing the number of deputies in the new parliament from four to five.
Analysts believe that AKEL’s fall and EDEK’s rise are related, as the communists were divided over whether to accept the UN’s Annan Plan in a referendum two years ago, while the socialist party kept a harder line, rejecting the plan as called for by President Papadopoulos.
Opposition DISY took the brunt of the criticism for telling its voters to accept the Annan Plan in an effort to reconcile the island’s two divided communities.
“We were attacked on all fronts, even from inside, but those who abandoned us failed to break up the party,” said DISY president and member of the European People’s Party executive council, Nicos Anastassiades.
Four broke away from DISY at the time and three of them merged with two other single-seat parties, the New Horizons (NE.O) and ADIK, to create the European Party (EvroKo), saying that the island’s only solution was a unitary state, controlled by the Greek Cypriots and subject to UN resolutions and European laws and regulations.
However, Sunday’s result disqualifies EvroKo from joining the ruling coalition in the future as they only secured 5.7% and three seats in the new parliament.
The Green Party/Ecologist Movement made no gains, ending the day with 1.9% of the vote and just one seat, while the party had been hopeful it would get a second deputy.
The United Democrats (EDI) of former president George Vassiliou was the biggest loser of the day, failing to reach the threshold of 1.8% in order to enter the House of Representatives and only managed 1.6%.
The party’s present president, Michalis Papapetrou, accepted defeat and called for an early party congress in June to elect a new leadership.
“It’s a shame that our policies were not accepted by the public,” Papapetrou said, referring to EDI’s open support of the Annan Plan.
The other single-seat party, the European Democrats (EvroDi) headed by former DISY deputy Prodromos Prodromou, failed to get enough votes to enter the House and with a 0.4% voter support is doubtful if it will survive.
Setting the tone for the run-up to the presidential elections in February 2008, the ruling coalition partners focused their attacks on the opposition’s support of the plan two years ago, while DISY capitalised on the disagreements within the administration and criticised the present government of mismanaging the economy in the three years of office.
President Papadopoulos is widely expected to announce a cabinet reshuffle before summer, but will not want to offend the communist AKEL, even though they campaigned against European Union accession and now want to delay the adoption of the single European currency, planned for January 1, 2008, the year of the next presidential elections.
