Our View: Disy could benefit from some soul-searching before leadership race

Two members, so far, will be challenging Averof Neophytou for the leadership of Disy in next month’s election – the party’s deputy leader Harris Georgiades and the party spokesman Demetris Demetriou. Others may follow, but it does not say much for party unity that both confirmed challengers were members of the party’s leadership team and had played a leading role in Neophytou’s election campaign team.

One could ask whether the challengers were actually working for the election of their leader or had a completely different agenda. That two of his close associates that had a big involvement in election campaign would be challenging Neophytou for the leadership does not reflect very well on him as it would imply that he did not enjoy their confidence, not to mention loyalty. Politics is admittedly a ruthless business, of which back-stabbing is very much a part of, but it was still strange how fast Georgiades and Demetriou turned on their leader.

Probably they had no choice, given that the leadership election date was set for early March by Neophytou, who must have calculated that a short lead-up to the vote would have enhanced his prospects. This would give little time for potential rivals to rally support and forge alliances, but it could also work against him as the big failure of the elections, which many in the party would have debited to him, would be a key factor in the choice members make.

The challengers are already talking about healing the wounds of a divided party and accepting back into the party members who had been struck off because they publicly announced their support for candidates other than the Disy leader. They also claimed they would look to the future and offer a new vision, without going into the specifics.

Meanwhile, there could be more challengers for leadership. Government spokesman Marios Pelekanos said he might consider standing while former health minister, Giorgos Pamborides said he would make a decision on Saturday. In short, there could be five candidates for the party leadership. One thing is clear from those standing so far – they would not envisage Disy acting like a conventional opposition party to the Nikos Christodoulides government. Even Neophytou, who had declared Disy would be an opposition party last week, appears to be soft-pedalling now.

This should not be the main issue. The priority must be to re-discover what Disy actually stands for, because after 10 years of being in government it has lost its way. But it appears the leadership candidates are more concerned of attaching the party to the new government than re-discovering the values and principles of the party that have ceased to matter.