Nicosia, Cyprus. Two members of Fidias Panayiotou’s Direct Democracy Cyprus party said on Tuesday that the party ignored its supporter base during the process leading to the vote for House president. They said the party leadership did not use the Agora mobile application to gather feedback before deciding how its MPs would vote.
Complaint over consultation process
Ioannis Damianou and Nikos Loukas, known on social media as “Loukanikos” (The Sausage), posted a video criticising the party leadership for not consulting followers through the Agora app.
The application was created to allow the public to vote on internal candidates and political policies, and to state how they want the party’s parliamentary representatives to vote.
In the video, the two party members said that “some way should have been found to take the public’s opinion into consideration”.
Objection focused on process
Damianou and Loukas said their objection was not about the party’s decision to support Disy’s Annita Demetriou for House president, but about supporters being excluded from the decision-making process.
Similar complaints have also appeared on social media in recent days.
Continued support for the party
Despite their criticism, Damianou and Loukas said they still support the party overall.
“Let’s give time for things to shape out,” they said.
Vote for House president
Earlier this month, Disy leader Demetriou was comfortably re-elected House president, with support that included the four votes of Direct Democracy Cyprus MPs.
In a separate video, Panayiotou explained why the party chose to support Demetriou instead of abstaining.
