Disy Vice-President Marios Pelekanos said on Thursday his resignation is final, following rumours he would stay on with the party, with many rejecting his decision to leave, after he didn’t receive party support to run in the upcoming EU parliamentary elections.
“My decision to quit is final and soon we will say more on the reasons I have chosen to quit as vice-president of Disy,” he said, following a flurry of speculation over the matter.
He added that his resignation was not over the vote of the political bureau for the upcoming EU elections, but rather over the behind-the-scenes actions, “which were the straw that broke the camel’s back”.
Pelekanos lost in party elections for the party candidacy for the EU parliament, and rumours circulated that the party had voted strategically to exclude him.
In his statement on Thursday, Pelekanos challenged the party to recount the votes to be certain, saying he has no objection.
“I hope that I will not have to respond again to the ‘bad mouths’ that aim to tarnish my reputation and standing. Cyprus is small and we all know each other well…”.
Regardless of Pelekanos’ decision, Disy leadership invited him to have second and cooler thoughts.
Indicative is Wednesday’s statement to Politis by Disy deputy leader Efthymios Diplaros that he will not accept Pelekanos’ resignation and that he will continue his efforts to dissuade him, acknowledging, however, that so far, the efforts in this direction have not been fruitful.
According to Diplaros, the party leadership is in no hurry to close the whole matter and is giving Pelekanos as much time as he needs to reconsider and make his final decisions.
In this context and in another goodwill gesture towards Pelekanos, the DISY leadership has decided that it will not immediately initiate procedures to fill the position of first vice president, thus giving him more time to recall and continue to contribute to the party from the position to which he was elected only a few months ago.