More than 3,500 people will be elected in the June 9 elections, the Director General of the Ministry of the Interior, Elikkos Ilias, said in his statements after the end of the meeting he had with the representatives of the political parties for information on the preparations for the June 9 Elections June 2024. The meeting took place on Tuesday morning at GTP, in Nicosia.
“These elections are important because we have many electoral contests for MEPs, Presidents of Provincial Self-Governing Organizations, Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Members of Municipal Councils, Mayors, Community Councils, School Boards”, said Mr. Ilias.
In then he said that on April 2, 2024 the deadline for registration in the electoral roll will expire and invited those young people who have not voted again to register in the electoral roll by that date, either online or by coming to the District Administrations, KEPs or KEPOs. For this purpose, he added, the District Administrations will remain open on Saturday, March 30 until 14:00.
The DG of the Ministry of Internal Affairs noted that if there are students or other compatriots who live in Greece, the United Kingdom or Brussels, they can submit their declaration online until midnight on April 2 to vote at their place of residence.
< p>“June 9 will be the day of the Republic because more than 3,500 of our compatriots will be elected to serve in some position,” said Elikkos Ilias, pointing out that the number of candidates, which will be finalized by the end of April, will be many times higher. He spoke of elections that have never been held before in Cyprus and invited everyone to participate and exercise their right.
Referring to the creation of digital platforms to assist voters, the DG of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that on May 2, the innovative application “What I vote for” is expected to be put into operation, where every citizen will be able to enter their details and will be informed of the number of the ballots he will receive and the number of preference crosses he will be able to mark on the ballots. He also said there will be a “Where I Vote” app, which was used in previous elections. He expressed his belief that the Cypriot citizen will be greatly helped with these two applications.
Speaking about the actions of the Ministry of Interior to facilitate voters, Mr. Ilias said that the number of voters per polling station has decreased. He expressed the belief that there will be no queues at the polling stations and that each voter should stay 5-6 minutes inside the polling station in order to exercise his right to vote. “5 minutes is not such a long time in relation to the task that we are called to perform as Cypriot citizens to choose those who will serve in various positions both in the European Parliament and in the Local Self-Government”, he concluded.
The election road map
During the presentation, the DG of the Ministry of Interior quoted the dates regarding the smooth conduct of the electoral process. As he said, April 2nd is the last day to register in the electoral rolls and the last day to submit declarations for voting at the polling centers abroad for the Elections for the nomination of Members of the European Parliament. On April 12, the decrees of the Minister of the Interior for the conduct of the elections will be published, while the General Election Commissioner, the Assistant General Election Commissioner, the Election Commissioners and their assistants will be appointed.
In addition, Elikkos Ilias said that on April 24th the nominations for the Elections for the nomination of Members of the European Parliament will be submitted, while on the 25th the nominations will be submitted for the Elections for the nomination of Presidents of Provincial Self-Government Organizations, Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Municipal Councilors and School Board Members. Subsequently, on April 29, nominations will be submitted for the Elections for Mayors and Members of Community Councils.
On June 9, the voting, sorting and counting of votes will take place, while on the 10th and 11th, the elected will be announced. Details and announcements will be published on the website elections.gov.cy in three languages (Greek, English and Turkish).
After referring to the types of electoral contests that will be held on June 9, the electoral lists that have been drawn up as well as the conditions for registration in each electoral list, Mr. Ilias noted that the last day of registration in the electoral lists is April 2, 2024. As he said, the election of more than 3,500 electors is expected in this year's election, noting that the number of candidates will be multiple times. He also expressed the certainty that the contests will be held successfully.
Regarding the European elections, the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that 30-35 special election centers will operate for the T/k in the free areas.
The numbers of voters
Referring to the numbers of voters until January 2, 2024, Mr. Ilias stated that 547,527 people have been registered in the permanent electoral roll (of which 735 are T/k), in the special electoral roll of Community Electors for Elections for the Nomination of Local Government Authorities have 11,559 were registered, 9,190 were registered in the special electoral roll of Community Voters for Elections for Members of the European Parliament, while 82,925 were registered in the special electoral roll of Turkish Cypriots for Elections for Members of the European Parliament.
As regards the new registrations in the electoral rolls from January 3rd to March 22nd, Mr. Ilias said that 5,941 people (of which 14 T/k) were registered in the permanent electoral roll, in the special electoral roll of Community Electors for Local Government Elections 3,208 people, while 519 people were registered in the special electoral list of Community Electors for Elections to Nominate Members of the European Parliament.
The emergence of the Principles of Local Self-Government
Referring to the election of Local Self-Government Authorities, the DG of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that 5 Presidents of Provincial Self-Government Organizations, 29 Mayors (in 18 free municipalities, 2 semi-occupied and 9 occupied), 93 Deputy Mayors, 443 Municipal Councilors (349 in free Municipalities and 94 among the incumbents), Members of School Ephorates for mayoral areas (7 by election and 4 by municipal council, while in Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca which have more than 50 school units, 10 will be elected by election and 5 by municipal council) Councilors (out of 285 free communities and 139 occupied ones), as well as Members of Community Councils (in 1,834 free communities and 556 occupied ones).
The ballot papers
The DG of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said the voters will cast up to 6 ballots in the municipal areas, up to 4 in the communities, 4 in the semi-occupied municipalities, 3 in the occupied and 2 in the occupied communities.
All the ballots will be cast in one ballot box, Mr. Ilias emphasized, clarifying that, to facilitate the voters when exercising their right to vote, but also for the officials during the process of sorting and counting the votes, they will be printed in a different color, depending with the type of election. Specifically, for the European elections the color of the ballot will be blue, for the Presidents of the Provincial Self-Governing Organizations purple, for the Mayors yellow, for the Deputy Mayors brown, for the Municipal Councilors white, for the Members of the School Boards green, for the Mayors orange and for Community Council Members gray.
Electoral expenses of the candidates
Referring to the electoral expenses of the candidates, Elikkos Ilias said that the electoral expenses of candidate MEPs must not exceed €50,000, of candidate President of a Provincial Self-Government Organization up to €30,000, of candidate Mayors with a number of voters up to 15,000 up to €10,000, with a number of voters between 15,001 – 30,000 up to €20,000 and with a number of voters with 30,001 and over €30,000. The election expenses of the Deputy Mayor candidates should reach up to €5,000, of the Municipal Councilor candidates up to €3,000, of the Community Mayor candidates up to €3,000 and of the Community Council Member candidates up to €1,000, according to the recommendation of the Ministry of the Interior, he concluded .
