Ioannis Clerides member of the Colony's Executive Council (under the British colonial government) but resigned in 1956, protesting the deportation of Archbishop Makarios III to the Seychelles. In 1959 he was a candidate for President in Cyprus' first presidential election in 1959, with the support of AKEL, but was defeated by Archbishop Makarios III. Notably, his own son, Glafcos Clerides, supported Makarios over his father. He was awarded the QC and CBE by the British government. Ioannis Clerides died in 1961, aged 74. Ioannis Clerides Ioannis Clerides or John Clerides (Greek: Ιωάννης Κληρίδης, 1887 - 1961) was a Greek Cypriot lawyer and
Makarios III seeking a fresh mandate from his constituency, announced in January 1968 that elections would be held during February. Makarios received 220,911 votes (about 96 percent), and his opponent, Takis Evdokas, who ran on a platform for unification with Greece, received 8,577 votes. Even though there were 16,215 abstentions, Makarios' overwhelming victory was seen as a massive endorsement of his personal leadership and of an independent Cyprus. At his investiture, the president stated that the Cyprus problem could not be solved by force, but had to be worked out within the framework of the UN. He also said that he and