The Committee on Home Affairs on Monday completed the examination of all the issues arising from the amendments of the parliamentary groups, in the package of legislations concerning the reform in the Local Self-Government, said the Chairman of the Committee Aristos Damianou after the discussion of the submitted amendments. The committee will meet again on February 10 with the sole purpose of confirming the text of the bills.
As mentioned in an announcement by AKEL, Mr. Damianou stated that the Commission passed the amendments one by one, adding that some of them have already been incorporated in the texts, while others were rejected.
He further stated that a number of amendments from those already discussed will be examined by the Plenary Session of the Parliament.
He reminded that the Committee on Home Affairs will refer the bills to the Plenary Session of the Parliament, with the intention to put them before it for voting on February 24, 2022, in all probability, in an all-day session.
“With regard to the controversial issues before the Commission for a final decision, at present and in principle, the provision for holding local referendums is maintained,” he said.
He went on to say that with regard to local referendums, there are specific amendments, which define local referendums by community or by city.
At the same time, the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee said that there is another approach that wants the referendums to be held per scenario and to concern the specific mergers, ie if there are 20 Municipalities to hold 20 referendums and of course there is the position not to hold referendums. He added that in the texts of the bills, the general report is formulated, bearing in mind, of course, that the remaining positions will be formulated through amendments in the Plenary Session of the Parliament.
Regarding the issue of the election of deputy mayors, Mr. Damianou said that there is still provision for the election of deputy mayors from the municipal districts, from which they come and said that regarding the election of municipal councilors there has been a significant addition to the debate. which is approved by the parliamentary groups of the parties and provides that in order to facilitate the election of candidates of smaller parties with lower percentages, in the second distribution there will be no ceiling, nor the condition of occupying a seat by parties that had occupied a seat from the first distribution .
In relation to the possible reduction of municipalities in all provinces, Mr. Damianou stated that the issue of scenarios and the number of municipalities remains open and will be the subject of amendments in the Plenary.
He went on to say that it had also been decided that there would be a term limit in total, adding that this applies to three terms in total, without retroactivity, creating an exception, taking into account political geography and demographics, for communities with less than 100 voters.
Mr. Damianou also said that for AKEL the existing scenarios serve a balance and stated that it is serious the possibility of changes, which did not occur in today's meeting. However, specific proposals have been submitted by parties for all scenarios in all provinces.
For his part, DISY MP Nikos Sykas, as mentioned in a statement by his party, said that during the discussion of amendments to the bills, the Interior Committee decided on the election of Deputy Mayors, the election of the President of the provincial organization. self-government.
He added that the Commission was considering the exceptional extension of existing terms in small communities.
From there and beyond, noted Mr. Sykas, “from the first moment as a Democratic Alarm we said that reform is a social need, our country needs it and I think that within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Fund I believe that we give and a clear message “. “We are defining and defining the Cyprus of tomorrow with the Recovery and Resilience Fund with a time horizon of 2026, a universal reform that also affects the new generation and I think the local government reform is first and foremost to give continuity and consistency to it. “What Cyprus wants for tomorrow and also as state officials we must once again prove our credibility through our work and through our actions,” he added.
He expressed the hope that on February 24 in the Plenary Session of the Parliament the maximum possible majority will be formed for the reform of the Local Self-Government.
The MP of the Ecologists 'Movement – Citizens' Cooperation Alexandra Attalidou, according to an announcement by the Movement, said that an amendment was adopted which will make the distribution of Councilors more democratic and will represent people who can run as a group in any election.
“So in the second distribution we consider that the distribution of Councilors will be more democratic and that is why we consider it very important because Local Government means more Democracy and closer to the citizen,” he added.
Ms. Attalidou also said that the “constructive and consensual approach” to the complexes was. “Our goal is: the complexes that will be able to have the capacity to manage the services properly, but also the issues that concern us, in terms of ecology and climate change – and that is what we have promoted. “These were our suggestions,” he said.
Source: KYPE
