Former health minister George Pamboridis on Friday said that he will seek his party Disy’s nomination for the 2028 presidential election.

He was asked during an appearance on television channel Ant1’s podcast who he thought would seek the party’s nomination, and said, “I would say Averof Neophytou, Annita Demetriou and myself”.

“What can I hide? Give me a second to explain myself. Deciding whether to run for president has a process. First, it has a theoretical and a practical process … Do you believe that you can become president and do the job? You have the ability. With all due respect and humility, I believe that I have the credentials to serve in the position,” he said.

However, he did note that “I do not have the access that the other two people I mentioned have”.

Later in the day, Demetriou was asked about Pamboridis’ intentions, and said only that his interest in being the party’s nominee was “legitimate”.

Pamboridis served as health minister under former president Nicos Anastasiades between July 2015 and the 2018 presidential election, when he was replaced by Constantinos Ioannou, who is now interior minister.

During his time in office, he oversaw the bulk of negotiations between the government and the House health committee regarding the creation of Gesy, with the laws defining its creation passed through parliament in June 2017.

After being relieved of his duties in 2018, he stepped back from frontline politics, only returning to the fray in May this year when he was elected as an MP.

At present, it appears most likely that party leader and House President Annita Demetriou will be Disy’s nominee at the 2028 election, after she reinforced her position at the top of the party with a better-than-expected showing at May’s parliamentary election.

She then secured the votes of social media influencer Fidias Panayiotou’s Direct Democracy Cyprus party and, begrudgingly, of Diko, to win a second term as House president, after negotiating with the former and forcing the latter to choose between herself and Akel’s Stefanos Stefanou in the second-round vote in the House.

She already said last month that the party intends to “have its own candidate” in 2028 following rumours that it may endorse incumbent President Nikos Christodoulides’ re-election bid. Christodoulides left Disy in 2022 to run as an independent at the 2023 election, with the party nominating then leader Averof Neophytou.

Neophytou, who served as party leader between 2013 and 2023 and had previously served as late president Glafcos Clerides’ public works minister, could only manage third place at the 2023 election, being beaten in the election’s first round by Christodoulides and Akel-backed candidate Andreas Mavroyiannis.

Since Cyprus’ independence in 1960, no person has ever lost a presidential election and gone on to win one later in their career.