Diko leader Nicholas Papadopoulos on Monday said he will not “rule out any scenario” regarding the question of who will be elected as House president, with parliamentary arithmetic appearing to suggest that there may be a path to the role for him.
“We do not rule out any scenario, any possibility, any cooperation,” he told television channel Sigma, before stressing that while the role of House president is “important” to his party, equally important is “the implementation of the government’s work, the preservation of stability, and the normality of the country”.
He then made reference to previous collaborations he had forged with Disy on economic policy issues over the course of the last parliamentary term, saying that such cooperation is “particularly important” to his party, and that “we will seek to continue it” in the coming term.
Asked directly if he will be a candidate for the House’s presidency, he said that “we will discuss all of this inside the party’s secretariat and the parliamentary group, and we will make our decisions in the next 24 hours”.
Diko and Disy had, alongside Elam, joined forces to elect Annita Demetriou as House president five years ago. However, since Demetriou became Disy leader in 2023, her relations with Elam have somewhat soured.
This was evidenced in comments made by Elam leader Christos Christou to television channel Omega on Monday.
“Mrs Demetriou, as is known, has been supported by us. We had given her a vote of confidence in 2021, but we believe that in the five years that followed, she wronged Elam in many cases, and we are withdrawing the trust we had shown. From that point onwards, we are not excluding other individuals,” he said.
He added that “the only thing we are excluding as a party is Akel”.
Suggestions have been made that another candidate from Disy could be put forward, given that Christou only ruled out voting for Demetriou or Akel.
However, if Demetriou and Disy are thinking longer term, it may be wiser strategically to offer to support Papadopoulos for the House presidency in exchange for Diko supporting Demetriou at the 2028 presidential election.
Disy and Diko have collaborated in presidential elections in the past, with both of Disy’s former presidents, Glafcos Clerides and Nicos Anastasiades, having been elected for the first time with the endorsement of Diko, in 1993 and 2013 respectively, and both presidents’ first cabinets containing three Diko members.
If Disy, Diko, and Elam coalesce around a single candidate, they will have a majority in parliament for the vote, with a combined 33 of the 56 seats in the House.
Should Disy insist upon Demetriou, however, and thus lose the support of Elam, there are other ways which they can reach a majority – chiefly through Alma.
Alma leader Odysseas Michaelides has already ruled himself out of the race to become House president, saying upon his arrival to be officially declared an MP at the Nicosia municipal theatre that “my effort remains in the leadership of the party”.
Asked who his party may endorse, he said that “Disy, Elam, and Diko, cannot be an option for us”.
Likewise, Alma MP Irene Charalambides said that rather than hoping to become House president, she will seek to be elected as chairwoman of the House audit committee.
It is mathematically impossible for a House president to be elected without the support of at least one of Disy, Elam and Diko, and as such, Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou appeared almost prepared to concede the question of who will be House president to those three parties.
“It is not the be all and end all of our work. We have a lot of work to do next. We will have the patience and composure to look into this issue as well,” he said upon his arrival at the Nicosia municipal theatre where the new MPs were sworn in.
The new parliament will first convene on June 4 to elect a House president.
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