House audit chairman and Diko MP Zacharias Koulias’widely broadcast plans to appoint a new auditor-general when he is acting President of the Republic later this week were brought to a crashing halt on Monday by House President Annita Demetriou.

His plans were first shared over the weekend but the prospect of him acting on his promise looked all the more real on Monday, when he said he was not bluffing.

As the oldest member of Parliament, Koulias would become acting president on Wednesday with both Demetriou and President Nikos Christodoulides out of the country.

 He said he would take over as acting president at 10.20 on Wednesday morning and at 10.21 would appoint a new official.

The new official he had sounded out was economist Stelios Platis, whom he called on Monday morning. Platis confirmed to the Cyprus Mailhe accepted the ‘offer’ – though he knew it would never actually happen.

“There was never a chance the establishment would let Koulias do anything of the sort.”

The MP said he would appoint a person of his choosing to take on the role after Odysseas Michaelides was fired last week.

His plans, which led the deputy government spokesman to step in and call on him only to “agree to disagree” were cut short as Demetriou announced she would postpone her overseas trip.

She said she would not go to Malta, a move understood to be an attempt to prevent Koulias from taking the reins and appointing an auditor-general of his choice.

“Under the current circumstances I have decided to cancel my planned trip to Malta… We cannot allow a crisis to cause another crisis,” she said in a written statement.

Demetriou added situations should be handled with responsibility and Disy MP Harris Georgiades would be traveling in her stead.

Koulias’ plans prompted the government to jump into damage-control as the question of was whether the MP had the power to make the appointment when acting president.

“It’s not a bluff, or a threat. It’s a political stance. Everyone knows corruption rules in this country,” Koulias told AlphaNews on Monday.

Deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou tried to assuage the matter saying “the acting president at any given moment stands in for but doesn’t replace the president.”

Antoniou said he had called Koulias on Sunday evening to discuss the matter and they had“agreed to disagree”.

He added that based on the Constitution, an acting president cannot abuse the powers granted to the role, and that a measured response is what the country needs most at present.

No decision can be made without prior consultation and agreement with the office of the president, he said.

Lawyer Achilleas Emilianides nonetheless specified Koulias has the exact same powers as the President of the Republic when acting president.

“From a legal standpoint, Koulias cannot be prevented from acting on what he said,” he told AlphaNews.

As such, Koulias would technically be allowed to appoint a new auditor-general. Nonetheless, it is contradictory to the philosophy of the constitution, he added.

Antoniou called on Koulias to act with “the necessary seriousness.”

Over the weekend Koulias had criticised President Nikos Christodoulides’ handling of Michaelides’ dismissal, including the fact that as acting president, Demetriou had signed the dismissal order in Christodoulides’ absence.

Since the dismissal process was carried out with such efficiency, so ought to be the replacement, Koulias reasoned. He had earlier called Michaelides’ dismissal “an institutional matter of huge dimensions”.

Christodoulides ought to have seen to arrangements prior to his departure for New York and should have prepared for the eventuality of Michaelides’ dismissal and named his successor, Koulias held.

Thousands of people gathered on Sunday to protest the sacking of the popular auditor-general, which they viewed as evidence of deep-rooted systemic corruption, while lawyers warned that nihilism and loss of faith in the institution of the supreme judiciary would deal a severe blow to the island’s democracy.