Disagreements remain between the parties that mainly concern the number of municipalities that will result from the mergers and the issue of holding or not referendums but also the type of referendum (pan-Cypriot, provincial, by municipality), therefore, the three bills for The reform of the Local Self-Government are referred to the all-day session of the Plenary Session of the Parliament next Thursday, March 3. This was decided by the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs during its closed-door session on Thursday.
According to information cited by KYPE, the plenary session will begin in the morning, with speeches by leaders or representatives of parliamentary parties in regarding the three bills, which will then be put to a vote.
The opening of the plenary session and procedural issues regarding, among other things, the speaking time of each party, will be decided at a meeting of the leaders of the parliamentary parties.
The parties' amendments to the bills will be submitted by next Tuesday, March 1st, ie 48 hours before the start of the Plenary Session, in order to give the parties time to study them.
In statements after the session, DISY MP Nikos Sykas said that a partial analysis of the bills was done and “some details that needed to be seen and corrected have been done”, adding that the most important thing is that we have three complete bills that are the quintessence of local self-government we will go to the Plenary with the corresponding amendments related to the referendums “.
“For us, our position is clear that any attempt at referendums endangers or stifles local government,” he added. “We are against referendums and have tabled the amendment for 17 municipalities,” he added./p>
He stated that DISY's position on the issue of the number of municipalities “was clear from the beginning that there are 17 or fewer municipalities”.
the term ceiling is abolished taking into account the special conditions and the struggles of the communities and the community leaders “.
He also referred to an amendment according to which “those who have completed the three terms and more will be able to claim another term, until 2029”.
Mr. Sykas said that DISY clearly says that the reform of the TA that “touches the Fund for Recovery and Resilience is a social and insurmountable need” and added that he believes “in the consensual acts and the good will of all parties” so that “the “Next Thursday we will finally be able to register our Cyprus and the legislature with another reform following the reforms that were voted last week in the Plenary”. bills which will be submitted “for the final crisis” in the Plenary Session of the Parliament next Thursday.
He said that DIPA reiterated its positions “mainly on the two thorny issues (number of municipalities and referendums), which are the alpha and omega of the reform”.
In relation to the referendums, Mr. Mousiouttas said that DIPA is against holding referendums “because as it became clear from today's debate any form of referendum either locally or regionally will leave bad residues with the result that the reform can not be implemented”.
The MP of DIPA appealed to “the other political forces to reconsider it by next Thursday so that the reform can be voted on and implemented”.
Regarding the number of municipalities, Mr. Mousiouttas said that DIPA's position is the 14 municipalities and appealed to the political forces “to leave the party flags, to leave the red, yellow, green and blue municipalities and to come closer to fewer municipalities and better local self-government”.
“There is a note of optimism that in the end the municipalities will be much less than 20 or 17”, he concluded.
Source: KYPE
