Tales from the Coffeeshop: The CyBC poll that asked all the wrong questions

THE HEAVILY advertised opinion poll commissioned by CyBC and presented on the same evening that Prezniktwo gave his ‘state of the union’ address was one of the weirdest ever, featuring some really silly questions.

Titled ‘Parliamentary Elections 2026: 40th Pancyprian Survey of Political Culture and Electoral Behaviour,’ it asked questions that had nothing to do with the elections, such as whether Kyproulla had become a bigger power since 2024.

Asked about the “international power of the country”, 26 per cent said “it became more powerful” compared to only 10 per cent believing this in May 2024. On the plus side it is encouraging that only one in four believe the government nonsense about making Kyproulla stronger. Fascinatingly, more respondents also thought it had become weaker (29 per cent compared to 23 per cent in 2024).

People were also asked about their opinion on the agreement on the “demarcation of the Cyprus/Lebanon EEZ”, an issue about which only a complete loser would have an opinion. No sane person would have an opinion about the demarcation of the Cyprus/Lebanon EEZ, yet the poll informed us that 68 per cent of respondents had a ‘positive’ opinion, even though I suspect not even point one per cent had a clue what this agreement said.

THE SILLINESS did not end with these questions, the pollsters also seeking the public’s expertise on the Great Sea Interconnector. They asked for their “opinion on the viability of the electrical interconnection of Greece and Cyprus”, with 48 per cent believing it was viable on a hunch and 32 per cent believing it was unviable also on a hunch.

When the public were not being treated as business consultants they were treated as military experts. To the question “in your opinion, is there a country, that can be relied on by Cyprus to strengthen its defence,” 41 per cent of the expert populace said Israel, whereas in 2024 only 9.5 per cent thought so. Greece had declined from 45 per cent, two years ago to 27 per cent now.

The presidential palace used this to send a message to Athens via its spokesman Bimbishis, who moonlights as Phil political correspondent and would never write anything that does not have palace approval.

“Those that must be concerned about this are today’s rulers in Athens,” he wrote on Friday. “They must be concerned because Cypriots not only show but also declare that they do not trust Greece and cannot rely on her to strengthen their defence.”

Israel is our new saviour, because unlike Greece Cypriots can trust it.

THE UNPOPULARITY of Turkish Cypriot politicians also featured. Card 5 was misleadingly titled ‘Popularity of T/C politicians 2003-2026’, although it was difficult to understand its relevance to the parliamentary elections.

The card informed us that 96 per cent of respondents had a negative view of Rauf Dentash who died 14 years ago. Mustafa Akinci was almost as unpopular (71 per cent negative view) while Ersin Tatar was at 78 per cent.

There was even a question about the popularity of Maria Angela Holguin, which also had great relevance to the parliamentary elections. In May 2024, 49 per cent had a positive view of her, whereas now this fell to 23 per cent.

Instead of asking respondents about the unpopularity of Denktash and Holguin, why had the pollsters asked nothing about the approval rating of our own party leaders, whose popularity is more relevant to the parliamentary elections, which the poll was about?

Had the pollsters forgotten to ask or had someone told CyBC not to publish the findings?

MY SUSPICION is that the presidential palace had ordered the state broadcaster not to mention anything about approval ratings because at the time the poll was conducted the Prez’s popularity had hit rock-bottom.

The poll was carried out between January 12 and 27, during the height of Videogate when the Prez had turned into a national hate figure. He would not want it to be known that his approval rating was in a single digit, so CyBC was told to inform its viewers about the unpopularity of Denktash and Holguin and ignore the Greek Cypriot politicians who had nothing to do with the parliamentary elections.

There was, however, another negative point linked to the Prez that could not be hidden. The three parties that backed his candidacy in 2023 saw their support take a big nosedive and it is touch and go whether Dipa and Edek will even enter parliament. Diko’s support also shrank but it still might elect four deputies.

THE PURSUIT of the suspended Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos has been a blessing for our Prez as the corruption of the palace highlighted by the infamous video has all but been forgotten.

Now everyone is baying for the blood of Phed who apart from a suspected wife-beater is also a suspected rapist. The weird thing is that the allegations were not made by the victims, but by third parties. Annie Alexoui reported the alleged wife beating and Aristo Developer reported the alleged rape.

He was removed from his post by the interior minister, because we have an idiotic law which stipulated that if there was a police investigation against a mayor for a suspected crime that carries a penalty of at least three years in prison, he/she cannot stay in the post.

According to this law, I could make a false allegation against any mayor and if the cops initiate an investigation, the interior minister is obliged to suspend him, before the investigation has even been completed.

It is a law that allows any member of the public to get any mayor removed from their post by simply telling a lie that the cops have to investigate.

AKEL was quite rightly asking why the mayor of Ayia Napa, Christos Zannettos was not also suspended from his post given that he is currently facing charges of forgery and obtaining money under false preetences?

The explanation is in the law. Zannettos was under police investigation before he was elected. When he was elected the police investigation had already been completed so there were no legal grounds for his removal from his post.

The interior minister can remove a mayor if he is subject to a police investigation (Phed), but not if he faces criminal charges (Zan). That is the law for you.

EVERYONE was up in arms because of the delay in charges being brought against the former president of the Cyprus Football Association (Kop) Giorgos Koumas for conflict of interest.

Outrage reached peak levels last Sunday when retired judge Alexandra Lykourgou – the investigator appointed by the attorney-general to look into the accused – gave an interview to Politis claiming the Law Service was dragging its feet on the matter.

Being a law professional, Lykourgou should have known that having the role of police investigator she had no authority to speak publicly about the case. This was the exclusive right of the AG as was the decision about prosecution.

Koumas was charged on Friday, not because of the public pressure by Lykourgou, but because this was when the AG was ready. Meanwhile, Koumas’ attorney, Chris Triantafyllides thanked Lykourgou for her public comments as these would help the defence.

PRIMARY schoolteachers’ union Poed has submitted a document to the education minister named a Unified Framework for the Prevention of School Violence and Delinquency. The framework contains “eight pillars” for controlling violent five- and six-year olds.

One of these pillars proposes the reduction in the number of children per class and a second teacher in kindergartens and Grade 1 of primary school. If primary school teachers need support to control a class of four-year-olds or six-year-olds they should be sacked.

Poed has invented violent and delinquent six-year-olds to push for the employment of even more primary school teachers.

FASCINATING to see that of the five priorities listed by the Prez in his state of the union address, the one which featured only two ‘actions’ was “Accountability, Transparency and Fighting Corruption.”

The first action was “upgrade and strengthening of the Internal Audit Service”, the service which never noticed the presidential palace collecting money above and under the table from donors it kept a carefully guarded secret as part of its commitment to absolute transparency.

The second action is the creation of a “national mechanism for monitoring foreign investment”, to ensure the presidential palace does not take money from foreign investors without declaring it.