Nicosia’s mayoral elections appeared to have created in-fighting within Disy, with the party leader Annita Demetriou on Wednesday saying she would not tolerate any rebels within the ranks.

The cause of Demetriou’s apparent outrage came after former Defence Minister Charalambos Petrides pre-emptively announced he would run for the capital’s mayor post.

“It’s not up to whoever announces their candidacy, it’s a party decision,” she said in an interview with AlphaNews.

Petrides made his candidacy public a few hours before the Disy political bureau convened on Tuesday to discuss a poll carried out for the party aiming to gauge public interest for various potential candidates.

The results showed current Aglandjia mayor Andreas Constantinou tops the charts, followed by former Deputy Shipping Minister Natasa Pilides and Petrides in third place.

Disy’s party leader stressed “we won’t accept whoever doesn’t respect our procedures.”

She highlighted that in-house elections are slated to take place in December with formal announcements to be expected in January.

The party leader and House president said Disy’s procedures are fair and it is up to the political bureau to vote for the party’s preferred mayoral candidates.

Asked if she was open to collaborating with other parties, Demetriou responded in the positive saying “everything will be considered”. Commenting on whether there was a possibility the party could support Andreas Vyras, who has Akel’s backing for Larnaca, she said everything was on the table.

“We do have political differences, but this does not concern his person. It is also about Disy’s presence, what society wants too, as well as broader collaborations. We will weigh everything.”