Anthony O. Miller
AKEL DEPUTY Andreas Philippou says he expects a revised version of his bill, which would eliminate sex-discrimination in the waiting periods for Cyprus citizenship, to be accepted by President Clerides, who rejected the original bill at the weekend.
The bill passed unanimously by the House Plenum on November 19 had equalised at two years the period that both foreign-born women and foreign- born men with Cypriot spouses had to wait before becoming eligible to apply for Cyprus citizenship.
Prior to this, foreign-born men married to Cypriot women had to wait five years before being able to apply for citizenship – five times longer than the one-year waiting period for foreign-born women married to Cypriot men.
According to Philippou, in sending the bill back to the House, Clerides had voiced his belief that “illegals should be out of the law”.
Philippou said Clerides was concerned the bill’s language might have allowed foreign-born spouses of Cypriots, who had been living in the country illegally before applying for citizenship, to make application and ultimately become “legal” citizens.
“We agree on that. They (the illegals) have no right to be in the country, and we will do it,” Philippou said yesterday, indicating the House would change the bill to conform to Clerides’ objection during committee debate, scheduled for today.
“(But) I will argue in Parliament that it is not necessary” Philippou said, to make the other change Clerides wanted: to raise from the bill’s two years, to Clerides’ three, the waiting period for foreign-born spouses to apply for citizenship.
Clerides had wanted the waiting period raised from two years, to three, to discourage marriages of convenience.
When he tabled the bill, Philippou said, he had wanted only a one-year waiting period. But he agreed to two years in a compromise with deputies concerned that only one year of waiting might lead to such marriages.
“I would hope that Parliament would not want to change it to three years,” he told the Cyprus Mail yesterday, adding that: “Cyprus men and Cyprus women should have equal rights.”
He said he expected the bill, after today’s committee debate, to go to the House Plenum, where it will be debated and passed tomorrow with the change Clerides wants regarding “illegals,” while keeping the bill’s original two- year waiting period.
“My guess is (Clerides) will not” send it back to Parliament after it is revised and resubmitted to him, Philippou added.
The Akel deputy had tabled the bill some 19 months ago on grounds the old law “has been totally unjust to women.”
The new legislation could affect some 3,000 foreign-born men married to Cypriot women and still waiting for citizenship eligibility under the old five-year rule. There are about 8,000 mixed marriages of Cypriots and foreign-born spouses in Cyprus.
