The Plenary Session of the Parliament convenes at 16.00, in order to approve the appointment of Secretaries and Quaestors that will be made by the Speaker of the Parliament Annita Dimitriou and to elect the members of the Selection Committee. The Selection Committee is expected to meet at 10.00 on Friday morning.
The Plenary Session of the Parliament will be preceded by a Meeting of Leaders or Representatives of the Parties, in the morning, to discuss again the composition of the Election Committee and the distribution of the Presidencies of the Parliamentary Committees.
If no agreement is reached during the Leaders' Meeting, the composition of the Selection Committee will be led to the Plenary Session.
A Meeting of Leaders was held on Monday, during which it was decided that the Selection Committee, chaired by the Speaker of Parliament, will consist of 3 MPs of DISY, 3 of AKEL and 2 of DIKO and an informal meeting of the Selection Committee was scheduled on Tuesday to decide on the distribution of the Presidencies and the members of each of the 16 Ordinary Parliamentary Committees.
Monday's meeting was not attended by DISY President Averof Neophytou, who on Tuesday attended the informal meeting of the Selection Committee and disagreed with the composition of the Selection Committee and the distribution of the Presidencies, so the issue will be discussed again in Leaders meeting today Thursday.
The issue seems to focus on the fact that all 4 smaller parties have more than 3 Members of Parliament and each claim a Presidency based on the custom that has been applied in recent years and with which in the previous parliamentary term they held Presidencies of parties that did not form a parliamentary group. , ie EDEK and the Citizens' Alliance that secured 3 seats from the electoral process. Solidarity was not given the Presidency because the former Speaker of the Parliament, Dimitris Syllouris, came from its ranks, who had the privilege of chairing whichever Committee he elected whenever he chose.
In view of the fact that the only Presidency he “orphaned” is that of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign and European Affairs held by the Citizens' Alliance and the fact that EDEK held the Presidency, to satisfy all four smaller parties, there are two Presidencies left.
MP Nikos Tornaritis, who is expected to continue to be DISY Parliamentary Representative, speaking to KYPE, expressed his party's position that the Constitution, the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament and the practice followed so far with the which the four smaller parties have the right to occupy by a Commission Presidency.
A similar position was expressed in a statement to KYPE by the President of DIKO Nikolas Papadopoulos, who stated that his party's goal is to reach a distribution and composition of Parliamentary Committees, which will reflect the will of the electorate.
For his part, George Loukaidis, who is also expected to continue to be the Parliamentary Representative of AKEL, expressed the position that his party is entitled to 6 Presidencies (in the previous term he held 5) and that he can compromise with 5 Presidencies by handing over the Presidency. of the Parliamentary Committee on the Environment of the Ecologists' Movement, without ruling out the possibility that the major parties may collectively give Presidencies to EDEK and DIPA. He clarified that AKEL cannot grant a Presidency for the benefit of ELAM, as this would constitute its normalization.
Mr. Loukaidis also said that it seems that DISY's intention is to keep AKEL with 4 Presidencies.
EDEK and DIPA told KYPE that they will refuse to take over the Presidency of the Committee as a concession or favor, but only if a collective decision is made in the logic that the will of the electorate should be reflected in the distribution of the Presidencies.
Regarding the Composition of the AKEL Selection Committee, DIPA and the Movement of Ecologists told KYPE that during Monday's Meeting of Leaders it was rightly decided that it will consist of 3 MPs of DISY, 3 of AKEL and 2 of DIKO.
On the other hand, EDEK and ELAM told KYPE that the Constitution does not limit participation in the Committee for the Election of MPs only by parties that make up a Parliamentary Group and argue that there should be a wider representation of the parties in it.
Pursuant to the Constitution and specifically Article 73, at the plenary session after the election of the President and the Vice President of the Parliament, an Election Committee is formed consisting of the President of the House of Representatives as President, its Vice President as Vice President and eight other House of Representatives “six of those elected by the Greek community and two of those elected by the Turkish community.”
Pursuant to paragraph 3 of the same article of the Constitution, the Selection Committee “establishes the standing parliamentary committees as well as any other temporary, established for a specific purpose or special Parliamentary Committees and appoints Members as members of these Committees”.
Furthermore, the Constitution states that during the formation and appointment (of the Parliamentary Committees) the proposals submitted by the Greek Community Group and the Turkish Community Group or by the Parliamentary Groups must be taken into account.
Appointment of Secretaries and Deans
Article 72 of the Constitution stipulates that after the election of the President and the Vice President of the House of Representatives, each of them appoints respectively two of the Members of Parliament and one Turkish Cypriot as secretaries of the House of Representatives, and two Greek Cypriots and a T / C as deans, who will belong respectively to the office of the President and the Vice President of the Parliament.
The practice followed in recent years was to appoint two Secretaries, one from DISY and one from AKEL and a dean from DIKO.
