Yiasemides tipped as possible Akel-backed presidential candidate

Economist Tassos Yiasemides, a partner at KPMG Cyprus, is among the names discussed within Akel as a possible presidential candidate the party could back. Local media reported that Yiasemides’ name was added to the list on the recommendation of the former Edek leader Nikos Anastasiou at a meeting with the Akel leadership, while the party’s secretary-general, Stefanos Stefanou, has not ruled out running himself. Andreas Mavroyiannis, Akel’s backed candidate in 2023 who lost the run-off to Nikos Christodoulides, has said he would welcome its support again. Other names reported include former EU commissioner Christos Stylianides and negotiator Menelaos Menelaou. Asked in regard to the reports on Alpha TV, Yiasemides did not confirm or deny that Akel had approached him. “I read them, I hear them, but there is nothing I have to say at the moment,” he said. He quoted his grandfather in saying that “everything has its time”. He described the presidency as “one of the most consequential issues facing the country” and that the policies it could deliver must be examined. He said Cyprus’s good fiscal indicators should tangiably translate to ordinary society and that there must be economic reform so that people can indeed feel the change. Yiasemides, a former Edek member, is a board member of KPMG Cyprus, and heads its economics department. He studied accounting and finance at Warwick University, is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and sits on the council of the Cyprus Red Cross Society.