Two members of social media influencer Fidias Panayiotou’s Direct Democracy Cyprus party complained on Tuesday that the party disregarded the fanbase in the process leading up to the vote for House president. 

Ioannis Damianou and Nikos Loukas, known by his social media alias ‘Loukanikos’ (The Sausage), uploaded a video in which they criticised the party leadership for not using the party’s Agora mobile application to ask followers for their feedback. 

The app was designed to allow the public to vote on internal candidates and political policies and to indicate exactly how they want their parliamentary representatives to vote. 

In the short clip, the two party cadres grumble that “some way should have been found to take the public’s opinion into consideration”. 

They stressed that their complaint has nothing to do with the party choosing to back Disy’s Annita Demetriou for the position of House president per se, but rather that the fanbase was left out of the decision making. 

Similar gripes have been seen on social media over the past days. 

But despite this perceived faux pas, Damianou and Loukas said, they continue to support the party overall. 

“Let’s give time for things to shape out,” they add. 

Earlier this month, Disy leader Demetriou got comfortably re-elected House president, thanks partly to the four votes from the Direct Democracy Cyprus MPs. 

In a clip of his own, Panayiotou explained why the party decided to back Demetriou rather than abstaining. 

The 26-year-old MEP argued that “Annita would have been House president anyway.” 

He claimed he managed to extract concessions from Disy in exchange for supporting Demetriou’s candidacy. 

But he also said this transient partnership with Disy constitutes neither a “blank cheque” nor does it represent “a united front” for the 2028 presidential elections.