Nikos Kleanthous, a lawyer, former MP and historic figure within the Democratic Party (DIKO), has died at the age of 78.
Kleanthous was born in Larnaca on March 23, 1948. He studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and went on to practise as a lawyer.
In 1976, he was among the founding members of DIKO. He served as president of the DIKO Larnaca District Committee. In 1977, the Council of Ministers, under the presidency of Archbishop Makarios, appointed him to the Investigation Committee for the Purge relating to the 1974 coup. He also served as secretary of the Larnaca School Board, a member of the judicial committee of the Cyprus Football Association, and a member of the Patient Welfare Council at Larnaca General Hospital. He was a member of DIKO’s Executive Bureau and Central Committee.
In 1998, he was elected deputy president of DIKO, a position he held until 2006. In the 1996 parliamentary elections, he was elected MP for the Larnaca constituency with DIKO for the 7th Parliamentary Term. On October 22, 2006, he ran for the DIKO presidency in internal party elections, a race ultimately won by Marios Karoyian.
He was re-elected in the 2001 parliamentary elections for the 8th Parliamentary Term and in the 2006 parliamentary elections for the 9th Parliamentary Term. In the 2011 municipal elections, he ran for Mayor of Larnaca with the support of AKEL and DIKO, but was not elected.
