Racists in the Greek Cypriot Parliament
23 May, 2016Talat: “I will not be a candidate in the Congress”
23 May, 2016The parliamentary elections held on Sunday produced a number of ‘firsts’ for South Cyprus, none of which are good for the minority Democratic Rally (DISY) administration or the main opposition Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL), according to the article published in the internet newspaper “In- Cyprus.”
Another shock was the record number of abstentions – 32.63% — which helped change the shape of South Cyprus politics, the newspaper stressed. “It is the first time in recent history that the two biggest parties received considerably less than two-thirds of the vote. Final results gave them a combined 56.36%–30.69% for DISY and 25.67% for AKEL.”
This is a far cry from the 67% that they have been used to and reflects general dissatisfaction with what the main parties had to offer”.
“In-Cyprus” also stressed that, related to the drop in support for the main parties, it is the first time that so many parties (eight) will be represented in South Cyprus parliament.
Tough for the economy and the Cyprus problem:
According to “In-Cyprus”, things are not going to be easy for DISY because, at the time of writing, it looked like DISY will have dropped one seat to 19, from the previous 20.
“Another first, therefore, is that the administration of the day will need the support of at least three parties to get legislation through – unless there is an unlikely grand coalition with AKEL.
Relying on at least three parties will make it tough to pass economy-related legislation, such as the reform of public-sector wages and related rules on merit-based promotions.
>With all the smaller parties against the administration – DISY and AKEL support the peace process – there will be little unity on efforts to solve the Cyprus problem.”
On the other hand, representation of the far–right ELAM in the parliament for the first time is the biggest shock of the election according to the newspaper. Despite efforts to keep them out by increasing the threshold, they scraped past it with 3.71% of the vote.”