Statement by AKEL Political Bureau member Aristos Damianou
28 September 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
AKEL denounces a methodical attempt, with the Interior Ministry’s consent today, to make it more difficult for Turkish Cypriots to participate in the electoral process in view of the upcoming European elections.
For some years, an outdated provision existed in the legislation, which was not implemented obliging Turkish Cypriots, in addition to the newly established procedures they had to follow to register on the special electoral list upon their arrival at the polling stations on the day of the elections, whereby they were required to fill in an additional responsible declaration concerning their place of residence, resulting in queues being formed at polling stations, with hundreds of Turkish Cypriots who wished to exercise their right to vote exclusively in the European elections, leaving the polling stations.
In its wisdom, the Anastasiades government, under the Interior Ministry of Mr. Nouris, had submitted to Parliament a relevant bill, which included harmonizing and several modernizing provisions of the existing electoral legislation. The presidential elections followed and the government of Nikos Christodoulides and the current Minister of Interior approved the present bill, which last week was put before the plenary of Parliament for a vote, but under strong pressure from opposition parties, as well as from far-right ELAM and DISY, the issue was postponed.
Today, at the Parliamentary Internal Affairs Committee’s session, we were informed by the Ministry of Interior that it is not insisting and will proceed with the removal of the specific provision from the bill. In essence, it reinstates the obligation for Turkish Cypriots, as Turkish Cypriots do when they go to the polling stations, to fill in a responsible declaration of their address of residence, which, by the way, cannot be checked as to whether or not the address is correct. I note that this was one of the reasons why this provision in the law was inactive.
As AKEL, we deplore this development and we are very much afraid that the obvious consequence is that we will have problems with the EU itself, because the European elections are not only a Cypriot matter, but the acquis provides for the unimpeded conduct of elections and the exercise of the right to vote, in addition to the very bad message that will be conveyed to the Turkish Cypriot community. At a time when Nikos Christodoulides is talking about a positive agenda, his government on this particular issue has taken us very far behind and it must be ready to deal with the consequences of this erroneous decision.
