Party leaders haggle over new House committees

PARTY leaders met yesterday for two hours to begin work on appointing re-elected and newly-elected deputies to the various parliamentary committees.

According to reports from the House, a new meeting will be held on Tuesday as the parties failed to agree on the composition of some of the committees.

They also reportedly argued over how many committee presidencies should be handed out to each party according to the results of the May 21 elections. There are 20 House Committees.

In the last parliament, DIKO held four presidencies, DISY six, AKEL seven, and EDEK two.

Discussions yesterday also turned to the possibility of entrusting a committee to the European Party, which did well in the elections, and also to creating a new committee for women’s affairs and equality, which AKEL would claim as its own.