New members of the Central Secretariat and Political Bureau of AKEL

 

Statements by Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL 

Cyprus News Agency, 20th December 2013, Nicosia

 

The Central Committee of AKEL convened today to elect new members to the Central Secretariat of the C.C and the Political Bureau.

As Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of AKEL stated four members of the Secretariat of the Central Committee and five members of the Political Bureau announced their desire to step down.

Furthermore, the Parliamentary Spokesman of AKEL Nicos Katsourides expressed his desire to step down from this position from the moment that he would also step down from both the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the C.C.

Given the situation, the Central Committee discussed nominations both for the Political Bureau and the Secretariat and after a secret ballot arrived at the following results.

Newly elected members of the Political Bureau by the C.C are Giorgos Loucaides, Toumazos Tsiellepis, Giorgos Georgiou, Chrystalla Antoniou and Christos Christofides.

Regarding the Secretariat of the C.C election which followed given that its members come from the Political Bureau, the members who were elected by the Central Committee were Nicos Ioannou, Giorgos Loucaides, Stefanos Stefanou, and Neoklis Sylikiotis.

Concerning the issue of the Parliamentary Spokesman, the GS of AKEL, stated that the C.C “respected the desire of Nicos Katsourides and has relieved him of these duties.”

The GS of AKEL added that the C.C will decide who will be the new Parliamentary Spokesman at a plenary session to be convened on 3rd January 2014, and until then these tasks will be fulfilled by the GS of AKEL himself and the Deputy Parliamentary Spokesman of the Party Stavros Evagorou.

In his statement after the announcement of the result, Andros Kyprianou said that “the Plenary of the C.C has completed a debate that began in the Party’s bodies since last June when discussions began on the Secretariat of the C.C “regarding whether we would proceed decisively towards renewal and also in order to respond to issues also raised by the Party base membership, but also by the demands of Cypriot society itself.”

“The process of renewal is on-going and we believe that it enhances the capabilities of the Party to respond more effectively to the challenges ahead”, noted the General Secretary of AKEL.

The GS of AKEL added that this concept of renewal and how the Party could address some other issues began with an exchange of views at the level of the Secretariat. Subsequently, the discussion expanded to the Political Bureau and the C.C

“Through the reflection conducted in the Secretariat and Political Bureau changes were decided at three levels. First and foremost, for changes in the same General Secretariat where five members of the PB announced their decision to step down, giving the opportunity to move towards a partial renewal of the Secretariat. In the recent 2010 Party Congress we had a big renewal in the Secretariat, around 50% of its members and it now includes five new members, 2 noted the General Secretary of AKEL.

The GS of AKEL thanked the cadres stepping down from the Secretariat and Political Bureau, namely Venizelos Zanettos, Fanis Christodoulou, Nicos Katsourides, Yiannakis Colokasides and Nicos Petrou, stating that “They have all contributed decisively towards AKEL reaching the position it is today, that is to say high in the consciousness of Cypriot society.”

The GS of AKEL also pointed out that they would continue their contribution to the Party from different posts. He noted that the Political Bureau consists of 19 members and the Secretariat of the C.C 7 members.

Furthermore, Andros Kyprianou also said that the Programmatic Congress of AKEL will take place in February and will deal with the positions of the Party, while also replying to questions, he clarified that there is no question of electing a new General Secretary of AKEL.