A poll is a snapshot of a moment, as the political dictionary says. And so it isn’t difficult to anticipate certain party percentages for May 24, 2026, based on the relevant measurements. Yet no one should ignore that we are facing a completely different party landscape, where new political formations are appearing. Consequently, we also have an electorate whose DNA is, for the most part, inscrutable today.
This is why it is very likely that when the ballots open, we might see surprises similar to those of Feidias Panayiotou in the European elections. That’s because around 18%–20% of voters say they might change their minds. In other words, if 5%–7% of that electorate swings to a particular party and unexpectedly propels it to first or second place, it would be labeled a surprise.
But will it really be a surprise?
On Wednesday night, ANT1 showed that DISY’s voter cohesion remains low (57%) and reflects outflows toward ELAM (10%), ALMA and Direct Democracy (4%), while 12% of DISY voters remain undecided. On the other hand, AKEL, which records the highest cohesion (74%), has outflows toward Direct Democracy at 6%, and toward ALMA and Volt at 3%. ELAM loses 13% of its votes to DISY and 4% to Direct Democracy. DIKO experiences outflows of 9% toward ALMA, 7% toward AKEL, and 6% toward ELAM.
So who can make a structured prediction when research companies, to extract a sample of 1,000 voters responding to their questions, must make over 12,000 phone calls?
Another extremely interesting issue emerging from what we see on the channels is that conventional party formations still cannot use a different communication tool with society beyond the wooden language they themselves “invented” and imposed in political life—a language that younger generations not only consider alien but actively despise.
At the political leaders’ meeting at OMEGA, it was evident that DISY, AKEL, ELAM, DIKO, and ALMA were using a different communication tool with the television audience than Direct Democracy.
When Feidias says he doesn’t know the Cyprus issue or cannot know the EU budget, why do party leaderships label him politically uneducated? Why haven’t the educated and politically knowledgeable succeeded in 52 years in finding a solution? Why did 76% vote “no” in the 2004 referendum, rejecting the return of Famagusta, Morphou, and 52 occupied villages, as well as the withdrawal of the last Turkish soldier in 2019? Was it because 76% had read the Annan Plan and concluded that the Turkish Cypriots would make a mockery of them, or because we didn’t want to share the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member, with them?
Why today is DIKO President Nikolas Papadopoulos challenging Odysseas Michaelides from ALMA to state, now on the 22nd anniversary of the referendum, his opinion on Tassos Papadopoulos’ stance on the Annan Plan? To tell us if it was right, dignified, and proud, as he himself believes.
A centrist, says Papadopoulos (Phileleftheros, 03.05.2026), “might answer this question in a few seconds. But instead, for a week, all we have received from ALMA is arrogance, poetry, and academic rambling.”
Can Mr. Nikolas Papadopoulos answer, in a few seconds or even in more time, whether Tassos Papadopoulos’ stance on the Milosevic scandal—which, together with Kikis Lazaridis and Auxentis Auxentiou, “handled” the people’s billions in Yugoslavia—was correct, dignified, and proud?
Is the pre-election period turning into a playground for clever remarks, Mr. DIKO President?
It isn’t—and the ballot box will show this on the last Sunday of May.
Because the ballot box is connected to the truths of life, not to convenient fairy tales on which small-time leaders build their castles, comfortably nestling in their “heroics” and commemorative speeches, heirs of party posts, maintaining a status quo for the few and a “justice” of a need sewn exclusively to fit their measures.
We’ll talk again next Sunday, with the truths of the ballot.
This article was first published on 16.05.2026
