GAROYAN TAKES OVER AS HOUSE PRESIDENT
By Elias Hazou
Cyprus Weekly
7 March 2008
DISY abstains as deputies
DIKO leader Marios Garoyan yesterday became the youngest ever President
of the House of Representatives.
By a show of hands, his nomination was endorsed by 36 deputies.
Garoyan, 47, landed the high-profile post after securing the backing
of all parties except opposition DISY, who chose to abstain.
He needed 50% plus one vote from the 56-seat parliament.
The Armenian Cypriot takes over from Demetris Christofias, who was
elected President last month. The post is said to have been offered to
Garoyan as part of a DIKO-AKEL deal ahead of the crucial runoff vote.
Linguist
Garoyan earned a degree in political science from the University of
Peruggia. He speaks English, Italian and Spanish.
On October 22, 2006 he was elected chairman of DIKO, succeeding
Tassos Papadopoulos.
He is married with two children.
Yesterday’s session of the plenum, the first since the body adjourned
last December, was chaired by DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades as
senior deputy in the absence of Christos Pourgourides.
"Since I’m sitting here, I might as well stay put," joked Anastassiades
to laughter from the room.
The first order of business yesterday was the confirmation of the
four new deputies, all from the ruling AKEL party.
No other names
Stella Demetriou-Mishiaoulli, Skevi Koukouma-Koutra, Claudius
Mavrohannas and Yiannakis Gavriel were sworn in by Anastassiades.
Speaking on behalf of DIKO, deputy Andreas Angelides next proposed his
party boss for House President. No other nominations were put forward.
Socialist EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou had been toying with the idea,
but decided not to run and went with the flow, supporting Garoyan.
DISY had also considered fielding its own candidate, but opted out,
probably realising they stood no chance against the DIKO nominee.
However, they also did not wish to be seen as ‘rewarding’ the
re-emergence of the AKEL-DIKO alliance in government.
Opposition force
"We wish to preserve our character as an opposition force…but at
the same time we shall take a constructive approach," DISY’s Number 2,
Averof Neophytou explained to parliament yesterday.
AKEL heavyweight Nicos Katsourides referred to the new House Speaker as
"friend Garoyan.’
He said AKEL agreed to back a candidate from another party, in
line with their proclaimed "desire for unity," a running theme in
Christofias’ discourse.
His election ratified, Garoyan stepped up to the Speaker’s chair
to applause from the plenum. Anastassiades greeted him with a warm
handshake.
"It is with profound emotions that I accept the honour you have
bestowed on me," Garoyan said in his acceptance speech.
Despite the cordial display, inwardly Anastassiades and DISY might be
holding a grudge against Garoyan, who is understood to have steered
his party away from supporting Kasoulides in the runoff to backing
Christofias.
According to speculation, DIKO’s U-turn had a lot to do with Garoyan’s
personal ambition to become House Speaker.
Dramatic change
In the event of Christofias’ election to the Presidency, the chair
would have been vacated immediately. But if Kasoulides won, Christofias
would have served out his term, which had three more years to go.
The other theory has it that it was Tassos Papadopoulos, working
behind the scenes, who was responsible for DIKO’s dramatic change
within less than 24 hours.
But it has been suggested that the story of Papadopoulos’ meddling
may have been deliberately leaked by circles close to Garoyan as
a smokescreen.
At any rate, DIKO’s decision to back Christofias had an impact on
the horse-trading for the ministries in the new government.
Reportedly, DISY had promised DIKO up to five ministries in exchange
for their backing. As it turned out, Christofias gave the centrist
party just three portfolios.
It has also been said that Garoyan proposed peripheral DIKO members
as ministers, undercutting high-ranking personalities such as Vassilis
Palmas and Kyriacos Kenevezos.
Over the past couple of weeks, the innards of DIKO have been simmering
with discontent at these moves, mixed with disillusionment over
Papadopoulos’ election defeat.
Andreas Angelides has gone public with criticism that the party
leadership committed fatal errors in the last stretch of the election
campaign.
And Palmas said that he was being groomed for a ministry, only to be
"cut" at the last moment.
Around the same time, there appeared press reports saying that certain
circles were worried that an Armenian should take over the House.
The rumours angered Vartkes Mahdesian, leader of the Armenian community
of Cyprus. Mahdesian issued a statement slammed these insinuations
as bigoted.