AKEL raises the issue over the Ad Hoc Committee on the Study of the Demographic Problem
6 September 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
The Parliamentary Representative of AKEL, Giorgos Loucaides, sent a letter yesterday to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, requesting the immediate convening of a session of the Committee of Selection, with regards the operation and work of the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee on the Study of the Demographic Problem.
The letter follows in its entirety:
“Honorable Madam Speaker,
I hereby forward to you a request on behalf of the Parliamentary Group of AKEL for the immediate convening of the Committee of Selection to discuss the functioning of the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee on the Study of the Demographic Problem.
As I had stressed at the first Committee of Selection’s session on the establishment of the Parliamentary Committees for the current Parliamentary Period, the assumption of the Chairmanship of this ad hoc committee by an MP of a party that does not form a party parliamentary group is in conflict with the provisions of Article 73 of the Constitution.
I would like to point out that the practice of the voluntary granting of the Chairmanship of a standing Parliamentary Committee by parliamentary parties to non-parliamentary group parties cannot be a precedent for the assumption of the Chairmanship of the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee on the Study of the Demographic Problem by an MP/member of a non-parliamentary group party from ELAM.
Furthermore, it should be recalled that the Parliamentary Group of AKEL has repeatedly made representations about the repeated violation of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure during the preparation of the agenda of the sessions of the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee on the Study of the Demographic Problem.
As I have also informed you in the past, the agenda of the meetings of the Committee in question includes issues that do not fall within the competence and/or the mandate stemming from the name of that Committee and from its previous functioning, in breach of Rule 41A. The violation of the Rules of Procedure by that Committee has now become permanent, a development that is totally unacceptable.
In view of all the above, I request that this letter be placed before the Committee of Selection to be discussed and for final decisions to be taken in relation to the functioning and proceedings of the said special Committee.”
