Akel wants last-minute change to electoral law

By Martin Hellicar

WITH polling day for the presidential elections less than four weeks away, the House plenum will today consider an Akel proposal for a change to the electoral law.

The opposition party wants the law to be amended so that votes are counted at district centres rather than at local polling stations. Akel is also proposing that a voting card be valid even if the voter has placed his cross on the photograph of his chosen candidate rather than in the blank space below.

The eleventh-hour amendment was discussed at the House Interior committee yesterday and is to go before the plenum today.

The proposal seems to have the support of Diko and Edek as well as Akel and might therefore be approved during this afternoon’s plenum session – the last before the February elections.

Akel deputy Andreas Christou told the committee yesterday that if votes were counted in regional polling stations it would make it easier for the count to be “influenced” or interfered with. He said parties did not have enough “capable members” to post someone to watch counting procedure at all local polling stations.

Disy deputy Lefteris Christoforou retorted that it was “incorrect” for the electoral law to be amended so close to polling day. He added that the law in its current form had only recently been unanimously approved by the House.

Election service officials told the committee that while last minute changes to the law might cause procedural problems and cost the state money, they would be ready to handle the situation if it arose.

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