Coming as a bolt from the blue for the leadership, officials, and supporters of EDEK, the resignation of party President Nicos Anastasiou, just 24 hours after the party’s extraordinary pan-Cypriot conference, during which it was agreed—among other things—to clean up the EDEK membership registry, Marios Hannides, a member of the party’s Political Bureau and Central Committee.

As he noted, he has not yet been able to contact Mr. Anastasiou, whose cell phone remains turned off, and he speculated that his resignation might be due to a disagreement with party officials over the reorganization of the EDEK membership registry and the exact date of the election—matters he considers “ridiculous” and “meaningless.”

At the same time, he singled out Marinos Sizopoulos as one of those who disagreed, while maintaining that Nikos Nikolaidis—with whom he had spoken several times—had not raised any objections.

Mr. Hannidis explained that, according to the party’s bylaws, elections must be held within 40 days to elect a new President, who will lead the party to the scheduled EDEK Electoral Congress this coming December.

The EDEK official called for an end to the discord and rejected criticism that the party is “divided,” emphasizing that any disagreements are legitimate. He also countered that the situation within DISY is worse than that of EDEK due to internal party strife, asking for time to restore order within the party.

When asked whether he himself is interested in the EDEK presidency, he indicated that now is not the time for personal positions or anyone’s interests, and stressed that what matters most is the party’s unity and party’s best interests.

Regarding the upcoming government reshuffle, Mr. Hannides emphatically stressed that Nikos Christodoulides must support EDEK, just as the party itself upholds a conference resolution to support him, for which it has paid a heavy. At the same time, he turned his criticism toward DIKO, saying that it should not assume it is the only party participating in the government and “wants everything on the table.”

However, Mr. Hannides expressed ignorance regarding whether Maria Panagiotou would remain in or leave the Ministry of Agriculture portfolio and reiterated that EDEK must participate in the governmentwith positions to be decided by the President of the Republic.