Democratic Party (Cyprus)

"DIKO" redirects here. For the airport with that ICAO code, see Korhogo Airport.

The Democratic Party (Greek: Δημοκρατικό Κόμμα (ΔΗΚΟ), Dimokratikó Kómma (DIKO)) is a Greek-Cypriot nationalist, centrist^[4] political party in Cyprus founded in 1976 by Spyros Kyprianou.^[5][6]

Democratic Party Δημοκρατικό Κόμμα
Abbreviation	DIKO
Leader	Nikolas Papadopoulos
Founder	Spyros Kyprianou
Founded	12 May 1976
Split from	Eniaion[1]
Headquarters	Nicosia, Cyprus
Student wing	ANAGENNISI
Youth wing	NE DIK (Democratic Party Youth)
Women's wing	GODIK
Ideology	Greek Cypriot nationalism Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre[A]
European Parliament group	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
International affiliation	Progressive Alliance[2][3]
Colours	Blue, Orange
House of Representatives	9 / 56
European Parliament	1 / 6
Municipal Councils	57 / 443
Website
diko.org.cy
Politics of Cyprus Political parties Elections ^ A: It is attributed to both centre-left and centre-right policies and is often described with either label.

DIKO is variously described as centrist,^[7][8] centre-left^[9] or centre-right;^[10][11][12] internationally, it is a member of the Progressive Alliance, which groups together mainly centre-left parties.^[2] Among all Cypriot political parties, DIKO claims to be the most loyal follower of the policies of Archbishop Makarios, the founding father of the Republic of Cyprus.^[13] Its electoral stronghold is the Paphos District.^{[citation needed]}

Overview

As stated in its founding declaration, the Democratic Party proposes the political philosophy of "social centrism", which constitutes "a total of attributes and values that offer in the state social cohesion, political prospect, improvement of terms of life and development of human culture, that should be shared between the entire population and not only between the privileged teams of the population". In June 2003, under the leadership of Tassos Papadopoulos, DIKO announced it was moving away from its traditional centre-right political positioning,^[14] and declared its intention of moving towards social democracy.^[14]

The party has developed a strict and hardline stance on the Cyprus problem and strongly opposed the Annan plan in 2004. DIKO also supports European integration and a non-aligned foreign policy, even though it showed support for Cyprus joining NATO's Partnership for Peace. The Movement for Social Democracy (EDEK), together with DIKO, constitute the so-called "space in-between" (ενδιάμεσος χώρος) in Cypriot politics, in that they strongly differentiate themselves from both the right-wing Democratic Rally and the left-wing AKEL.^[15]

From 2000 to 2006, the party was led by Tassos Papadopoulos, who was President of Cyprus from 2003 to 2008. Papadopoulos was succeeded as DIKO leader by Marios Garoyian, who was President of the House of Representatives from 2008 to 2011. The party leadership was taken over by Nicolas Papadopoulos, son of Tassos, following an internal ballot in December 2013.^[16]

The Democratic Party's traditional third place in legislative elections has allowed to it to assume the balance of power in parliament, where it has alternated between support for the communist Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) and the conservative Democratic Rally (DISY). In the 2011 legislative election, the party won 15.8 percent of the vote and 9 out of 56 seats. The party's decision not to field a candidate in the 2013 presidential election and to back conservative leader Nicos Anastasiades instead was controversial amongst members, and contributed to Marios Garoyian's loss of the leadership to Nicolas Papadopoulos later in the year.^[16]

During the Seventh European Parliament, the sole DIKO MEP was attached to the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group.^[17]

Party leaders

No.		Leader	Portrait	Term of office		President
	1	Spyros Kyprianou		1976	2000	1977–1988
	2	Tassos Papadopoulos		2000	2006	2003–2008
	3	Marios Garoyian		2006	2013
	4	Nikolas Papadopoulos		2013	Incumbent

Election results

Parliament

House of Representatives

Election	Votes			Seats
	#	%	Rank	#	±
1976	With AKEL and EDEK[a]			21 / 35	new
1981	56,749	19.50	3rd	8 / 35	13
1985	88,322	27.65	2nd	16 / 56	8
1991	66,867	19.55	3rd	11 / 56	5
1996	60,726	16.43	3rd	10 / 56	1
2001	60,977	14.84	3rd	9 / 56	1
2006	75,429	17.92	3rd	11 / 56	2
2011	63,763	15.76	3rd	9 / 56	2
2016	50,922	14.49	3rd	9 / 56	0
2021	40,395	11.29	3rd	9 / 56	0

European Parliament

European Parliament

Election	Votes			Seats
	#	%	Rank	#	±
2004	57.121	17.09	3rd	1 / 6	new
2009	37,625	12.28	3rd	1 / 6	0
2014	28,044	10.83	3rd	1 / 6	0
2019	38,756	13.80	3rd	1 / 6	0
2024	35,815	9.72	5th	1 / 6	0