Unacceptable machinations by the government-Legal Service against AKEL-Left-New Forces election campaign

 

Press Conference of the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou on the rejection after 30 years of the name “AKEL – Left – New Forces” in election campaigns

8th 2021, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

“We want to express our regret that decisions and actions taken by the Government and the Legal Service, at least raise questions about what their real intentions are.

I say this because after 30 years of our Party fighting in electoral campaigns under the name “AKEL – Left – New Forces”, they have suddenly told us that they won’t permit us to run in the upcoming parliamentary elections with the name with which we established ourselves as an electoral list in 10 elections, since 1991.

We have also been told that our Parliamentary Group has no right to retain its name. The very name under which we voted for hundreds of bills, exercised parliamentary scrutiny and control, voted budgets, voted amendments to the Constitution. The name under which we are represented in the European Parliament and in other international fora.

We replied that “AKEL – Left – New Forces” is just the electoral name under which we run in elections. We proved to them that there are no structures or procedures other than AKEL. We told them that even the case law of the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court has judged us by this name in the Electoral Court and we put forth many other arguments. They don’t want to hear. The dry answer we got is that this is the opinion of the Legal Service – ignoring, of course, that the institutions must be impersonal and that every Attorney General or Election Commissioner cannot change procedures outside those that have been defined for decades, because they simply interpret – the same laws – differently from their predecessors.

The bad faith is also evident from an additional fact. A few hours before the dissolution of the Parliament, they immediately brought a bill to the Parliament and set us as a condition to either vote for it or to lose our electoral name. They of course do us the “favor” by allowing us, only for the upcoming elections, to contest the elections as “AKEL – Left – New Forces”. These are not serious matters. These are unacceptable machinations/scheming being used outside of political ethics and codes.

On the 12th May, AKEL will ask the Electoral Commissioner to act like all his predecessors did, accepting the name of “AKEL – Left – New Forces” electoral name. At the same time, we have no choice but to go to court.

We call on the Anastasiades-DISY government to consider the magnitude of its responsibility. The Constitution has been operating for decades. The electoral law has also existed since 1979. We therefore wonder: why has this decision been taken?

We refuse to take part in such games. We will assert by political and other means what we consider to be correct and just. In the end, it is the people who will judge, it will be citizens themselves. We must defend our honor and dignity.”