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Garoyan Takes Over As House President

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  • Garoyan Takes Over As House President

    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.
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