By Rita Kyriakides
SUNDAY’S Parliamentary elections results have doubled the amount of women serving as deputies in the House of Representatives.
Six women were voted into Parliament, compared to just three voted in 1996.
But the figure is still well below a 30 per cent target, which the government hopes to achieve by 2005, despite a Justice Ministry advertising campaign urging voters to elect female candidates in the run-up to the election.
The six women elected to the 56-member House are only just over 10 per cent of deputies.
The head of DIKO’s women’s branch, Antigoni Papadopoulou, was one of those who will make her debut in the new House. She feels that, even though the number of women in parliament is still too low, it is an improvement, not only in number but also in quality. “I believe that the women voted in to Parliament are going to open the doorway for the women of Cyprus. They all have special qualities in different fields of life,” she told the Cyprus Mail.
AKEL and DISY have two female deputies each, and DIKO and United Democrats have one each.
It’s the first time that AKEL have had female deputies.
Eleni Mavrou (AKEL) is 40-years-old and was born in Kyrenia, now living in Nicosia. She has two degrees in Politics and one in International Relations. She was the General Secretary of AKEL’s youth branch for 10 years and is now the head of AKEL’s Rapprochement Office.
Sotiroulla Charalambous (AKEL), aged 38, was born in Ayios Memnona near Famagusta, now living in Larnaca. She studied Politics in Bulgaria and now works as a trade unionist with PEO. She has been involved in politics since her student days as a member of AKEL’s youth branch. She began work as the secretary for the Women Workers PEO of Larnaca-Famagusta and later moved to the main branch of the department of Women Workers at PEO.
Maria Kyriacou (DISY) is 51-years-old and was born in Nicosia. She studied Law in England and works as a Civil Servant. She is head of Department of Intellectual Property and is a member of a Managing Committee of a school.
Eleni Theocharous (DISY) is a familiar public face through her work for Doctors of the World. Aged 48, she was born in Limassol, studied Medicine and Philosophy and works as a doctor. She is President of the Cyprus branch of Doctors of the World and is Vice President of the Broadcasting Authority.
Antigoni Papadopoulou (DIKO) is 47 years old and was born in Morphou. She studied Business Management in America, England and Cyprus. She works in the private sector. In her student days she was a member of the Social Welfare, the Hellenic Society and the Enlightenment Committee for the Cyprus Problem.
The United Democrats’ Androulla Vassiliou is the only woman of the batch to be re-elected to parliament. The former first lady is aged 58, was born in Paphos but grew up in Nicosia. She studied Law and International Relations in England. She works as a lawyer.
