Political analysts believe the island’s first election following last February’s presidential one and the new state of play sparked after Nikos Christodoulides’ victory is of crucial importance, Philenews reports.
In about a year, the European and local elections will take place and even though these don’t have the character of parliamentary or presidential elections they can nonetheless demonstrate society’s feeling towards political parties.
There is a specific particularity in next year’s elections as well, considering that they will be held together for the first time and under a new local administration structure.
Something that increases the degree of difficulty for all political parties – especially, though, for the island’s two main ones: right-wing Disy and left-wing Akel.
For right-wing Disy, it will be the first election under its new leadership but also after their defeat in the presidential elections following 10 years of being the ruling party.
In addition, up until the European and local government elections, the party will have two other important milestones.
The first one is the party’s regular congress on April 29 where the election results for the presidential elections will be assessed for the first time and, at the same time, a dialogue will probably be opened on the party’s stand towards the new government.
Although the decision of the politburo is for a “responsible opposition” there is still an underground struggle for the predominance of opposing tendencies.
That is, the strong opposition on the one hand and the coalition on the other.
As for long-time main opposition Akel party, the next elections will certainly be a very good “crash test” that will determine whether it can create a dynamic to become the pole of change in 2028. This is the declared plan of its leadership, afterall.
At the same time, an effort is ongoing aiming to shut internal fronts so that the party can project a healthy image of unity to the outside world.
Before the upcoming elections, the statutory congress of the party will be held in the Autumn through which the leadership wants to bring changes in the operation of the party. But it also wants to reopen new channels of communication with civil society.
