Annita Demetriou has been re-elected House Speaker, with the four votes of Direct Democracy Cyprus (ADK) proving the decisive factor in a day of intense behind-the-scenes manoeuvring that ended in a bitter public clash between AKEL and DIKO.
According to Phileleftheros sources, the groundwork was laid the previous evening, when Fidias Panayiotou met with Demetriou and former DISY leader Averof Neofytou on Wednesday night. Sources say the first step of an agreement was reached at that meeting, though whether Panayiotou would hold firm and bring his party with him remained to be seen.
By Thursday morning, the focus had shifted to how Direct Democracy Cyprus would cast its votes. The scenario that concentrated minds was this: if ADK’s four MPs voted for DIKO president Nikolas Papadopoulos, he could advance to a second round on the strength of those votes combined with ELAM’s support, potentially leaving Demetriou out of the running.
ELAM had already decided to run its own leader, Christos Christou, as its candidate. However, sources say Papadopoulos had sounded out Christou on the scenario, and had informed both the DIKO parliamentary group and the party secretariat that ELAM’s support would be a given if ADK’s four votes could be secured. ADK’s MPs had signalled early on Thursday that they would vote as a bloc.
DIKO’s collective bodies also discussed what the party would do if Papadopoulos failed to reach the second round. According to sources, the majority position — reached without a formal vote, though with an overwhelming weight of opinion behind it — was to support Demetriou in that eventuality. At least two voices called for abstention. None argued for AKEL Secretary General Stefanos Stefanou.
ELAM’s parliamentary group convened shortly before 3pm. Sources say Christou told his MPs that backing Papadopoulos could be considered if there was a realistic prospect of him reaching the second round, which hinged on ADK’s four votes. The session ran on as the group waited, in effect, for ADK to show its hand.
A few minutes before the Plenary began, it became clear that Direct Democracy Cyprus would back Demetriou from the first round. That ended any discussion of supporting Papadopoulos, and ELAM proceeded with Christou’s candidacy.
With DISY’s 17 MPs and ADK’s four behind her, Demetriou advanced comfortably to the second round. Her opponent was Stefanou, who had AKEL’s 15 votes and ALMA’s four. Given that DIKO’s eight MPs were going to vote for Demetriou in the final round and ELAM’s eight would abstain, the second round was effectively a formality.
DISY had been pressing ELAM until the last moment to avoid any outcome that left Demetriou out. The decisive moment, however, was ADK’s announcement of its support for her.
According to sources, that support had in fact been locked in — without being made public — shortly after 2pm, when Panayiotou and the four ADK MPs met Demetriou at her parliamentary offices. DISY deputy president Efthymios Diplaros was also present.
Panayiotou conveyed a set of demands: increases to pensions, a child benefit, and the construction of 10,000 homes to boost housing stock, all of which he had previously referenced in a joint video with Demetriou.
Sources say the response was that these matters fell outside parliament’s direct remit, but that DISY would back them as policies to be promoted. It is also reported that the creation of an ad hoc committee on Artificial Intelligence was requested.
Panayiotou left without publicly committing either way, though sources close to him indicated he was leaning towards Demetriou.
AKEL and DIKO trade blows
The outcome triggered a sharp public exchange between AKEL and DIKO, two parties that had until recently been discussed as potential partners for the Speaker’s post.
In a statement, AKEL said the vote “confirmed that AKEL is the force in this country that operates and conducts itself with honesty and integrity, far from haggling and horse-trading — practices that so disappoint society.” The party said Stefanou’s candidacy “was the candidacy of the Left but, at the same time, expressed the opposition and the entire progressive and democratic pole of the country.”
AKEL went on to say that “the backroom dealings and choices of certain party leaderships expose them irreparably. The DIKO leadership continued its rightward drift by electing Synarismos to the Speaker’s chair. Direct Democracy revealed itself from the outset, supporting from the very first round the quintessential party of the establishment and the banks. ELAM hid behind abstention, having made clear repeatedly that its problem was with the individual and not with DISY and its policies.”
DIKO hit back. “AKEL has once again chosen political isolation and electoral failure, but as usual, everyone else is to blame. That is entirely their prerogative. We will not follow them into that toxicity,” the party said.
DISY, coming first in the parliamentary elections with 27.1% and with Demetriou now re-elected as Speaker, closed the electoral cycle in the strongest position of any party, with many already looking ahead to the 2028 presidential race.
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