Diko party purge continues

GREEK Cypriot Democratic Party’s purge of dissidents continued on Monday as 12 more people were expelled from the party and three announced their resignations.

The “charges” which have so far seen a few dozen Diko party members ousted and resign, relate to the party leader Nicolas Papadopoulos’ loss in the presidential election.

The dissidents are accused of not supporting their leader but instead, working for Nicos Anastasiades’ camp, who eventually bagged a second term in office.

Leading the rebellion were former party leader Marios Garoyian and former MP and MEP Antigoni Papadopoulou who openly held meetings against Mr Papadopoulos’ bid, for his stance on the Cyprus problem and have also been ousted.

Chryso Argyrou, Evangelia Paraskeva and Michalakis Andreou announced their resignations echoing each other, saying the current leadership had taken Diko far from the values it had been originally founded on.

Mr Andreou, who was a founding member of the party involved for over 40 years, said the main reason Mr Papadopoulos had lost in the elections was because he had not involved his party members in the decision making process “and they paid you back with the same coin”.

He added he was choosing to not participate in Diko’s “political suicide” and that Mr Papadopoulos chose to expel members of the party rather than self-reflect on why he lost.

Mr Papadopoulos had the support of Edek, the Green Party and Solidarity Movement yet failed to get to the run-off elections.

Monday’s dismissals were of Giorgos Hadjigiannis, Michalis Michail, Costas Constantinou, Kyriacos Antoniades, Emilia Poizi, Sotos Sialaros, Antonis Siamailas and Sotiris Lamnisos.

Diko also announced that four persons were automatically removed for refusing to answer to the “charges” brought against them. These were Nectaria Charalambous, Costas Kasinos, Marinos Casinos and Evangelia Paraskeva, who had earlier announced her resignation.

In-fighting in the party kicked off immediately after the first-round results which saw Mr Papadopoulos fail to make the runoff.

He accused former chairman Mr Garoyian and other members of working for Mr Anastasiades and initiated procedures to expel them all. Others resigned in protest over the methods used by Mr Papadopoulos, who has been heavily criticised for failing to acknowledge his responsibility in the debacle.