President slammed over political favours

Parties on Saturday slammed President Nikos Christodoulides for handing out political favours with appointments made to semi-governmental organisations.

Criticism came from various political factions, which slammed the sloppy handling by Chirstodoulides’ government of SGO appointments.

Responding to accusations, Christodoulides said “every innovation and significant reform sparks reactions”.

He also expressed his gratitude for the president and members of the Consultative Council and “dozens of fellow citizens who, for the first time, had the opportunity to express interest in participating in the boards of SGOs. Many of them, he added, will participate in SGOs for the first time.”

The president was speaking a day after the contentious appointment of an Elam member who openly praised the Greek junta to the board of a public university.

Despite subsequent reports about the decision to replace the board member, criticism continued to pour in.

Left-wing Akel accused the president of failing to find competent people to appoint from the left, saying his list of choices concern “blatant cases of conflict of interest” due to the professional and business activities of the appointees.

Commenting on Konstantinos Kostalia’s appointment to the board of the Cyprus state university of technology (Tepak), Akel referred to him as “a member of the fascist Elam who publicly praises junta”.

Meanwhile right-wing Disy referred to “incredible frivolity and sloppiness of the government’s manipulations” after mentioning Kostalia’s appointment “fiasco”.

“We don’t know which is worse: that the government knew who it was appointing, his actions and beliefs, or that it didn’t?” Disy’s statement said.

Newly formed party Volt said that while previous administrations engaged in favouritism too, they attempted to maintain a facade by appointing members from opposing parties also.

The current appointments, Volt added, surpass even their former selves. “After presenting the Advisory Council to the Cypriot people as the reform cut for transparency in the appointments of semi-governmental organisations, after involving thousands of scientists in the application process, they set up a completely formal body for the selection of their most loyal friends, relatives, supporters, and applauders who will manage the country’s public wealth from tomorrow.”

The party struck a further blow saying Christodoulides ran in the presidential elections with the promise of embodying qualities such as being new, ethical, modern and non-partisan but contradicts these ideals “with every political action”.

The appointment of Elam’s Kostalias to the Tepak council was announced on Friday and revoked later the same day following public uproar. He was replaced by Dr Konstantinos Vorkas.

Kostalias’ removal appears to be the content of his social media posts, including one shared by the head of student affairs of the university showing a photograph with the Greek flag and the military junta’s leader Colonel George Papadopoulos reading “Greece is not for sale”.

“You still have time to correct a very serious mistake,” Tepak’s Vassilis Protopapas wrote, emphasising that “there are limits”.

Later on, he referred to the replacement as “a positive development, indicating that, regardless of political views and differences, there are common democratic reflexes and sensitivities”.

The other members appointed to the Council of the Cyprus University of Technology (TEPAK) are Kostas Galatariotis – Executive President of a group of companies, Melina Dionysiou – Lawyer, Andreas Karakatsanis – Civil Engineer, Marina Nicolaou – General Manager of a hotel, Alexandros Taliotis – Management Executive at a private school, and Loukas Christodoulides – Educator/Mathematician.