Presidential hopeful Giorgos Lillikas said on Tuesday that someone from the campaign team of Nicolas Papadopoulos tried to ‘buy him out’ so he would withdraw his candidacy.

Speaking on Astra radio, Lillikas said the approach to him personally was made in December, two days before the submission of candidacies for the presidential elections.

His aide Andreas Themistocleous went a step further, claiming that after these overtures to Lillikas had failed, the Papadopoulos team then approached people inside the Lillikas team issuing “veiled threats” to them.

Themistocleous declined to name those involved.

Papadopoulos staffers have categorically denied the allegations.

“It’s time we moved on to more serious matters,” said Giorgos Georgiou, seeking to put an end to the controversy.

The campaign teams of incumbent president Nicos Anastasiades and AKEL-backed Stavros Malas made hay out of Lillikas’ reveal, both taking the moral high ground and lamenting the “new lows” in politics set by the Papadopoulos camp.

It all began a day earlier when Kathimerini ran an interview with Lillikas, who alleged that the staffers of a rival candidate had tried to get him to pull out of the race, offering him ‘tradeoffs’ that included money.

At the time, he refused to be drawn on which camp had made him the offer.

Speaking on Active radio on Monday, Lillikas said he was ‘forced’ to make the revelation because he was fed up with rumours that Anastasiades’ team had offered him the position of foreign minister in the next administration if he withdrew his candidacy.

These rumours were being spread by the Papadopoulos camp, he added.

Lillikas denied he had ever been approached by the Anastasiades team.

“Some need to realise that not everyone is for sale. There are still ordinary people and politicians who are ethical and have dignity,” Lillikas said.

The interviewing reporters kept pressing Lillikas to name the rival camp who had allegedly sought to bribe him, but he would not budge.

One of the reporters then told Lillikas it was obvious he was pointing the finger at Papadopoulos since he had already ruled out Anastasiades and Malas.

“You are a very clever reporter,” Lillikas responded, chuckling.

Twenty-four hours later, Lillikas was ‘forced’ to name the camp that had tried to induce him to withdraw.

On Monday, prior to Lillikas coming clean on who had approached him, the Anastasiades and Malas teams strongly denied they had anything to do with the sordid affair.

Lillikas is the second candidate to make such claims. Earlier, Elam’s Christos Christou made similar insinuations about two rival camps. Christou declined to take the matter further, but said he would come back with evidence if need be.

Polls show that Papadopoulos and Malas are neck-and-neck to secure a place in the runoff ballot, where either will face the frontrunner Anastasiades.

Lillikas is projected to garner just two per cent of the popular vote.