AKEL’s Central Committee will meet on Saturday to set the party’s strategy for the 2028 presidential election, the first formal step towards choosing its candidate, spokesman Haris Polykarpou told philenews on Friday. Once the party’s political framework is ratified at the meeting, contacts with other parties and the discussion of names will follow, he said.
“We are moving forward with determination towards victory and progressive change in 2028,” Polykarpou said at the party’s offices on Ezekia Papaioannou Street.
He said the meeting would set a roadmap with three main elements: completing the political framework that will underpin the party’s platform for 2028, seeking alliances with parties that back the goal of progressive change, and choosing the candidate who will carry that goal into the election.
For AKEL, progressive change has substance and “is not limited to individuals but also seeks a change in policies”, Polykarpou said. He said the policies of the current and previous governments over the past 13 years had sharpened social divisions and economic inequalities, and left key sectors of the economy facing huge impasses. They had also drawn the country into regional conflicts that put peoples at risk, he said, and left the Cyprus problem stagnant while deepening partition.
After the Central Committee meeting, the discussion moves to the party’s grassroots groups, where the agreed framework will be presented and discussed freely. Suggestions on names or candidate profiles may emerge and will be examined later by the Political Bureau or the Central Committee. A second round with the grassroots will follow, which the party aims to hold with a specific name on the table.
The plenary session, devoted solely to the 2028 presidential election, is scheduled for 9.30am at the events hall of the ETKA-PEO building in Nicosia.
