The official launch of the procedure to elect the new President of the Cyprus of Republic was announced on Friday by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior and Chief Returning Officer of Presidential Elections, Costas A. Constantinou.
In statements at the Ministry of the Interior, Constantinou said that today marks the beginning of the electoral process until Sunday, February 5, 2023 while a second round will be held on Sunday, February 12, 2023, if necessary.
He noted that in view of the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing President of the Republic on February 28, 2023, the Minister of the Interior published the relevant decree today in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cyprus.
Additionally, Constantinou stated that the Minister of the Interior, within the framework of his powers provided by the legislation, has appointed Costas A. Constantinou, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, as the Chief Returning Officer of Presidential Elections and Menelaos Vassiliou, as the Assistant Returning Officer of Presidential Elections.
Nominations by the candidates will be submitted on January 5, 2023 at the “Filoxenia” Conference Center, said Constantinou. They will be submitted between 8 am and 12 noon, at a time to be determined in collaboration with the candidates, he added. Constantinou stated that after the submission of nominations there will be a 6-hour deadline for any possible objections and then, once the deadline has passed, the list of candidates will be formalized. He stated that in the event that more than one nominations are submitted, the vote for the election of the President of the Republic will be held on February 5, 2023 and the second round on February 12, 2023, if necessary.
Regarding the process of registration of Cypriots overseas the electoral roll, he said that this is in progress. “We have statements that correspond to the possibility of holding elections in 19 cities abroad, mainly Greece, the United Kingdom, and some other European countries. This process continues and our fellow citizens temporarily living abroad can register in this special list so that they can transfer their right to vote abroad and this possibility is given until midnight on December 27, 2022,” he said.
He underlined that in order to enable the operation of polling stations abroad, a special electoral roll is drawn up, in which the details of registered voters are transferred from the permanent electoral roll of Cyprus, following a relevant declaration submitted by the interested parties. Constantinou noted that polling stations abroad, according to the legislation, can only operate in those cities where the number of voters who will submit a declaration exceeds fifty.
So far a total of 6,033 declarations for voters abroad have been submitted, said Constantinou. He added that, until now, the electoral roll has 551,758 citizens registered. This, Constantinou clarified, is the regular list where the temporary list that is in progress will be incorporated. Until yesterday, new registrations in the electoral roll reached a total of approximately 7,500. The interest, he noted, is less than that of the corresponding period in the Presidential Elections of 2018. “We still have time and we hope that the number of our fellow citizens who will register this period will also increase,” he said.
Source: Cyprus News Agency