Sophia Christodoulou Makri becomes new EDEK leader — 53.3% in the first round

Sophia Christodoulou Makri has been elected chair of the Cypriot party EDEK — the Movement of Social Democrats. She won in the first round of the internal party vote on 5 September, securing 53.3% of the vote.

Christodoulou Makri received 1,182 votes from party members. Kyriakos Mavronikolas received 789 votes (35.6%), while Yorgos Kouttoukis received 246 (11.1%). Polling stations were open from 9:30 to 17:30, with 2,224 people voting in total out of approximately 8,000 party members.

Christodoulou Makri won in Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and among party members abroad in Athens. In Nicosia, where the highest number of members voted, she led Mavronikolas by 19 votes. Her opponent won only in the Famagusta district.

The new chair is a lawyer who previously headed EDEK’s youth organisation. In the parliamentary elections on 24 May, Christodoulou Makri received 1,719 votes, the best result among the party’s candidates, although EDEK itself failed to enter parliament for the first time since 1970.

The post was vacated by Marinos Sizopoulos, who announced his resignation as chair after the parliamentary elections. The vote took place amid disputes over the party register: around 700 EDEK members were not allowed to take part, while the procedure for maintaining the lists and the composition of the bodies responsible for them were challenged within the party.

During the campaign, Christodoulou Makri spoke of restoring EDEK’s unity and reorganising the party, running under the slogan “Let’s save our home”. The party congress is scheduled for December.