Greens vote to back Tassos

THE GREEN Party has voted to throw its weight behind President Tassos Papadopoulos in next February’s presidential elections.Party members voted on Sunday to support Papadopoulos' candidacy with 46 votes, or 79.3 per cent, from 58 elected representatives. Nine representatives, or 15.5 per cent, voted to support the candidacy of AKEL’s general secretary Demetris Christofias.There were three blank votes.Speaking after the meeting, party leader George Perdikis said the decision was subject to the inclusion of ecologists' positions in Papadopoulos pre-election programme and the fulfilment of his commitments given to the party during their meetings.Perdikis said that the important issues on which the outcome was shaped were a poll carried out between the movement members, which showed that a 60 per cent majority favoured Papadopoulos' bid for re-election and the party's support for a multi party government.“The door for a wider coalition of the centre-right party should remain open,” he said.On the Cyprus issue, Perdikis said that the Green Party had differences with Papadopoulos. “But the positions of the other candidates were even further apart from our positions,” he said.