Cyprus president, opposition leader in verbal battle over LNG

Opposition leader Nicos Anastassiades threw down the gauntlet in the run-up to the 2008 presidential elections, charging that President Tassos Papadopoulos’ law firm had a vested interest in the LNG floating terminal that the government is desperate to push through.

Calling the affair the ‘scandal of the century’, presidential supporters have lashed back at Anastassiades, saying his claims add up to the ‘slander of the century’.

The debate has been raging all week on public television on local radio which culminated with Anastassiades accusing the present administration and former Commerce Minister Yiorgos Lillykas of favouring a company, SBN, which he alleges was registered by the Tasso Papadopoulos & Co. law firm, but was also advised during the tender process by the same law firm, that includes the president’s son and ruling Diko MP, Nicholas Papadopoulos.

This is one of the many issues that have surfaced regarding the same law firm. Earlier ‘scandals’ last week spoke of the firm asking for commissions from a Chinese arms manufacturer I order to secure a National Guard contract.

The pro-administration parties have also joined the president’s defence, revealing other scandals involving energy companies, this time alleging to have ties with former government ministers during the Clerides administration of 1993-2003.

Former coalition partner AKEL, joined the LNG verbal battle Thursday saying that the whole affair has blown off course, which is nothing more than the government’s delaying tactics to build a land-based terminal.

On Friday, the DISY president announced that he had posted all his statements and questions posed to the government on the party website at www.disy.org.cy .