DIKO leader Marios Garoyian yesterday said he felt an important step had been made in the right direction in the four parties’ meeting on Friday.
“It was confirmed by the four of us that the first choice, like we have agreed in the individual meetings, is the candidacy of Makis Keravnos,” said Garoyian.
He added that any candidate would not be under the four parties’ guardianship and would move in the direction of enlargement.
“The candidate won’t be under guardianship and he can’t be, if he is possibly called to govern the state,” said Garoyian. “(The candidate) will move in the direction of enlargement and on his own basis, with prestige, credibility, and undoubtedly the ability to form a government programme in understanding and cooperation with the parties that support him, the movements and even the organised bodies.”
Spokesmen for EDEK, EVROKO and the Green Party also confirmed they were examining the possibility of approving Keravnos as a presidential candidate for the February 2013 elections.
EDEK deputy head Marinos Sizopoulos said the party’s leader had proposed independent candidate George Lillikas and former Communications Minister Marios Eliades on Friday, but was looking into Keravnos as a first choice.
EVROKO spokesman Michalis Georgallas also confirmed the party was in the process of finding out more about Keravnos.
And Green Party MP George Perdikis said progress was made in Friday’s meeting as it clarified there would no longer be individual meetings between the minority parties and ruling AKEL or main opposition DISY.
Meanwhile, AKEL general secretary Andros Kyprianou was yesterday asked to comment on the goings-on in the “in-between area”.
“I want to make it clear once again that we will not become trapped in a fait accompli, which others are attempting to form,” he replied.
AKEL, he added, has clear political views, on the Cyprus problem as well as the economy, so anyone who wishes to collaborate with the ruling party “will have to be prepared to discuss the formation of a political framework with us”.
Regarding his party’s recent meetings with DIKO and EDEK, Kyprianou said there had been no conclusion.
“There have been no further meetings apart from the ones that took place in previous days,” he said.
Source: Cyprus-Mail
By Jacqueline Agathocleous
Published on May 27, 2012
