In a world where politicians have run out of ideas, one candidate has a brandnew platform: free love

Utopian candidate champions free love
By Michele Kambas

LARNACA, Cyprus (Reuters) - Costas Kyriakou is promising Cypriot voters Utopia and that means sex.

A colorful candidate among a sea of suited businessmen and lawyers, Kyriakou says he is offering voters an alternative in the island's May 21 parliamentary elections.

"My new order will give people ... lots of love for all," he says.

His nickname, "Utopos," combines two Greek words which coined the term "Utopia," meaning "No Place."

A strapping man with piercing blue eyes, he draws on ideas from Plato and Christian apocalyptic scriptures for his ideal city-state where people live in communes and share everything.

But central to his Utopia is sex, a campaign pledge which draws guffaws of disbelief from deeply conservative Cypriots.

"I propose a regime of free love," he declares.

"The men will see it as a system of free love, the women as a matriarchy ... they will be able to carry the sperm of the most handsome men, and give the child her name."

Utopos, an independent candidate for the western region of Paphos, has hit the campaign trail running. Literally.

Sporting a black bandana, jeans and sandals, he has crossed most Cypriot towns on foot, chatting with locals and handing out his pamphlets.

Utopos, 48, quit philosophy school in his third year and is now a farmer. "I knew more than they did. I was against others trying to stuff my head with ideas."

It is his second run for parliament, which he sees as a stepping stone to the presidency.

He ran in the presidential election of 2003, where he won 0.44 percent of the vote, the highest figure among a smattering of fringe non-party candidates.

Utopos disputes this. "I received 73 percent," he said.