Democratic Party (Cyprus)

Democratic Party (Cyprus)

The Democratic Party (Greek: Δημοκρατικό Κόμμα, Dimokratikó Kómma; DIKO) is a centrist political party in Cyprus, founded in 1976 by Spyros Kyprianou. As it is reported in its founding statement (manifesto), the Democratic Party proposes to the Cypriot society 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".

From 2000 until 2006, the party was led by Tassos Papadopoulos, who was President of Cyprus before Dimitris Christofias. It was the third-largest party in Parliament, with 9 of 56 seats. Papadopoulos was succeeded by Marios Karoyian following elections within the Democratic Party. In the elections of 21 May 2006, the party won 17.9% and 11 out of 56 seats.

Papadopoulos was defeated in his bid for re-election in the February 2008 presidential election, placing third in the first round, and subsequently DIKO announced its support for AKEL candidate Dimitris Christofias in the second round.