RALLY for Europe deputies Prodromos Prodromou and Christodoulos Taramountas yesterday warned that the current electoral law could lead the island’s first Euro elections to a fiasco if it was not amended.
The two former DISY deputies suggested the current legislation would leave out from the second count all parties and groups apart from AKEL and DISY.
The electoral law governing the Euro elections has sparked controversy and angry exchanges among the candidates contesting the six seats in the European Parliament.
The law was approved by the House of Representatives, without any major objections from any party, based on the law governing parliamentary elections. But the political scene has changed over the past few weeks and what had seemed a perfectly acceptable law, a month ago is now deemed unfair and undemocratic.
And despite submitting a bill on Monday providing for a five per cent threshold for participation in the second count, the two deputies yesterday announced they were tabling a fresh bill lowering the threshold to two per cent.
The two deputies warned, however, that, whatever the threshold, with the current system a candidate or party needed to secure 16.7 per cent in order to participate in the second count.
“This provision means that with the electoral percentages and the parties’ power, only AKEL and DISY will participate in the second count,” Prodromou said.
He added: “It looks like we are arriving to the conclusion that neither DIKO nor anyone else, apart from the two parties, can win a seat in the Euro elections.”
Prodromou said the current law was chaotic and could lead to a fiasco if not changed.
He added that the legal grounds to appeal the result later on where there but their intention was to prevent Cyprus’ humiliation, a sure thing if the law was not amended.
“The law contradicts the EU directive and we expect the legal service to advise the government to adopt the directive,” Prodromou said.
The interpretation of the law by the election service was arbitrary and its position illegal, the deputy added.
Both deputies agreed that the matter was primarily in the hands of parliament who needed to discuss it urgently.
