A new day has dawned for Efthymios Diplaros, and the events of the past few hours at the Democratic Alarm are now over.
Speaking on the Alpha Kalimera program, DISY Deputy President Efthymios Diplaros, when asked how they would resolve the situation, he pointed to the Executive Bureau meeting, the decisions made there, and the procedures that will be followed.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
“We are moving forward with our procedures, and all of this will be clarified before the party’s collective bodies, without any problem whatsoever, and you understand that all these issues we’ve been observing—which have caused concern over the past 48 hours—I believe will be resolved.”
When asked if there have been reactions from long-standing party members regarding the timelines set for October 13 and November 14, he replied that the decisions were made following a lengthy discussion within the executive committee.
“But we’ve been saying for a long time that the party’s candidate must be selected before the end of 2026, and in fact, we’ve been saying that by the end of November, at the very latest by early December, we would have our candidate. This is nothing new, nor is there any rush to expedite the process.”
When asked to comment on Giorgos Pamporidis’s reactions, he stated that there is a window of more than 10 days to collect the 500 signatures required, noting that a member may sign both on the 2nd and the 3rd.
When asked if he knows of any other candidates, he replies that anyone can run for office.
“I don’t know, but even the lowest-ranking member of the faction and the most ordinary member of the faction can run for office. This is an unprecedented event in Cyprus: the entire party base will vote, with around 50,000 party members being called upon to choose, for the first time, the faction’s candidate for the presidential election.”
When asked to respond to Averof Neophytou’s remarks about him and the possibility of supporting Christodoulides, he declined to comment on anything said over the past two days, emphasizing the process being initiated by DISY.
“I’m not going to say a single word—especially as the head of this electoral process—or add fuel to the fire. It’s all over. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.”
Responding to a comment that not everything is over yet, he states that in a few days all of this will have been clarified and there will be nothing left to discuss.
“We will, however, discuss remarks that may have hurt fellow candidates. That is why I say that today, with God’s help, a new day has dawned. From now on, none of us will argue. Everyone has their own opinion. We will decide democratically, and our appeal to everyone—and to ourselves—is this: no matter how much we may want to say anything, let’s put all that aside and think about the people in our party who, I believe, are worried and troubled by everything they see.”
When asked to comment on the statements by Nikos Anastasiadis—who warned of the risk of losing the election based on the vote share if DISY splits—he acknowledges that this would be a major problem.
“Beyond that, in the aftermath of the candidate’s selection through the party’s procedures, the process must find us—including his fellow candidates who did not receive the nomination and all of us— be united through this process and rally to support our candidate with all our strength, each in their own way and wherever they can.”
When asked how the “war” of 2023—as he himself had described it—would be avoided, he states that the situations are different; and when asked to explain the difference, he says:
“Back then, the party’s rank-and-file hadn’t made a decision—or weren’t making one. In 2023, despite the former President’s calls at the time for members to go to the polls with Mr. Christodoulides and let the members decide, that provision did not exist in the party constitution. It wasn’t institutionalized. It wasn’t mandatory. Now, however, we have this statutory provision requiring everyone to go through the party’s grassroots. They must convince even the most ordinary party member that they want their support. So what I’m saying is that this is a major democratic process that will also give momentum to the party’s candidate tomorrow when he is chosen from among all these thousands of members.”
“The most important thing is that, once our candidate is selected, we all rally behind him, and I believe that is what we will do,” he continued.
He points out that after the 50,000 members have made their choice, no one— especially an official, to make another choice to support anyone else—whether covertly, openly, or in secret.
“From time to time, there has been criticism of the behavior of party officials.Beyond that—the witch hunts, the various counter-accusations, the ‘I said this, you said that, I responded, I didn’t respond’—all of that is behind us now; today is a new day.”
“Mr. Neophytou knows better than anyone what he will do,” he replies when asked if he is calling on Mr. Neophytou to go through the party’s procedures.
“Undoubtedly, when you’re a member—a simple member—of this Panataxia and you believe in its procedures, you must abide by them. All the more so for a former president like Mr. Averof Neophytou. But Mr. Neophytou certainly doesn’t need any advice from anyone.”
