Former foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides and one-time Cyprus reunification negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis go head to head in Sunday’s presidential runoff election, with the ruling Democratic Rally (Disy) party, out of the race for the first time in its history, expected to express its support for either candidate.
The Democratic Rally electorate seems essential for victory, hence both candidates are awaiting any message from outgoing president and Democratic Rally member, Nicos Anastasiades, in this regard, as reported by the ‘Cyprus Mail’.
The Government party is now divided between both candidates, to the point that high ranking officials of the formation have already given their support to Mavroyiannis, such as the Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides, despite the fact that the candidate had the support of the opposition, represented in the progressive workers’ party Akel.
Theoretically, Mavroyiannis — also a person very close at the time to Anastasiades — ran as an independent, but Akel decided to back his candidacy in the national interest, as explained last week by the secretary general of the communist formation, Stefanos Stefanou.
Christodoulides, for his part, has the backing of prominent members of Democratic Rally such as former Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou, Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis, veteran MP Nicos Tornaritis and Education Minister Prodromos Prodromou.
Disy’s official position at the moment is that it does not intend to endorse either of the two contenders. The party’s presidential candidate, Averof Neofytou, defeated in the debacle of the first round, assured in his personal capacity that he would not support Christodoulides, a former member of the party, whom he even declared a «traitor» for abandoning the party in pursuit of his presidential ambitions.
Be that as it may, the two candidates are running after a campaign focused on economic recovery to the detriment of political efforts for reunification with Northern Cyprus (the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus). The country is still limping after the economic catastrophe of 2013 and the electorate has expressed its anger with high voter abstention rates; an act of apathy further fueled by their perception that both Christodoulides and Mavroyiannis are but an extension of the outgoing president.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
