Independent runner for February 5’s presidential elections Achilleas Demetriades on Thursday submitted his nomination in the presence of family members, dozens of supporters and ‘Sky’ – the little dog that has become the campaign’s official mascot.
The message sent out by the prominent human rights legal expert is that his candidacy now gives a choice to all those who are fed up with the rotten system.
On the continued division of Cyprus as a result of Turkey’s invasion in 1974, he said: “The future of Cyprus cannot be partition. We can prevent it. The European Union is the shield. Energy and the Euro-Turkish relationship are the keys to unlock the (now stalled) resolution process.”
He also stressed that corruption must be stopped, as it exposes the country and offends the people.
A number of high-profile supporters accompanied Demetriades at the Filoxenia Conference Centre in Nicosia where the nomination process took place.
These included former Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou Markoulli and Titina Loozidou, the displaced Greek Cypriot woman from Kyrenia who won her property case against Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights. Her lawyer was Demetriades.
The official nomination procedure for presidential candidates started at 8am on Thursday and ran until noon. A total of 14 hopefuls threw their name in for the top position in the country. The procedure took about 15 minutes for each candidate.
