Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 98-02-06

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Friday, February 6, 1998

Kyprianou under attack again

A WIDE variety of election stories appeared in yesterday's front pages. The stories included the ongoing bickering within Diko, analyses of opinion poll results and the state of the economy.

Simerini reported that a new row had erupted between the Diko leader Spyros Kyprianou and the party's disaffected deputy leader Dinos Michaelides. Michaelides claimed that George Iacovou had agreed to give four ministries to Diko, if elected.

The deputy leader also accused Kyprianou of trying to turn Diko parliamentary spokesman Tassos Papadopoulos against him. Kyprianou categorically denied all accusations, but Diko man Costas Eliades, who was tipped to become defence minister in a Iacovou government, avoided giving an answer, the paper noted.

Phileleftheros said that election fever had recorded a steep rise, with charges and counter-charges flying in all directions. Edek accused the two big parties, Disy and Akel, of wooing Dr Lyssarides' supporters through the spread of false rumours - that Edek had already decided who to back in the second ballot.

Akel spokesman Nicos Katsourides denied the claims saying that, if anything, Edek had been luring voters away from Iacovou. Kyprianou accused the Clerides government of being involved in efforts to attract Diko voters through bribery.

Haravghi led with a report of a speech by Akel deputy Kikis Kazamias about the economy. Kazamias claimed the government lacked credibility when discussing economic issues.

Back in 1992, before his election, President Clerides had been claiming that the economy was on the brink of disaster. Today, despite the fact that economic indicators are much worse than in 1992, the government was claiming that the state of the economy was very healthy.

Alithia reported that Clerides had sent letters to President Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan, asking them to use their influence in order to make Ankara modify its stance on Cyprus.

Clerides did not divulge the content of the letters, but repeated his old position, that if Ankara did not change stance, there was no chance of the peace negotiations producing results.

Machi, which described the letters as "important", said that Clerides felt it necessary to raise this issue again, because without a change of stance in Ankara the start of talks would be greatly delayed.

Agon predicted a very close presidential race, claiming that undecided voters would decide the outcome. It said all opinion polls showed that 17 to 19 per cent of the voters had still not decided who to vote in the second ballot.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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