Cyprus’ center-right DIKO party has decided it will support neither the incumbent nor his left-wing challenger in Sunday’s runoff of the country’s presidential election.
The party’s executive bureau said endorsing either President Nicos Anastasiades or independent Stavros Malas would be a reversal of the party’s stance on reunification talks with the divided nation’s breakaway Turkish Cypriots.
DIKO’s candidate in the election’s first round on Sunday advocated a tougher line in the talks, saying Anastasiades and Malas would concede too much to the Turkish side.
Party spokesman Athos Antoniades said any form of cooperation would mean “a reversal of our position”.
Asked if the party’s stance was calling on their supporters to pick whoever they wish, the DIKO spokesperson said: “Voters, who think they can support one of the two candidates, should do it.”
Anastasiades and Malas — who garnered 35.5 and 30.2 of the vote respectively — had hoped to secure DIKO’s support, as well as win over voters from a coalition of smaller parties.