Panayia in uproar after mukhtar stripped of position

VILLAGERS in Panayia in the Paphos district are in uproar, after they were told their democratically elected community leader Ezekiel Ezekiel, could no longer hold this position as he doesn’t live in the village.

The Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said the law stated that all community leaders, or Mukhtars as they are know locally, must reside in the village they represent.

The villagers argued that many mukhtars currently in office do not live in their villages, and questioned why their leader had seemingly been singled out.

They held a demonstration on Monday morning in the village. They also handed a letter of petition to the Paphos District Officer, demanding Ezekiel’s immediate reinstatement.

The ministry, meanwhile, removed Ezekiel’s name from the electorate’s official list, effectively stripping him of his position.

Sylikiotis said that if anyone felt they had been wrongly removed, they had the option of taking the case to court. Ezekiel says he is taking his dispute to the Supreme Court.

Michalis Efthymiou, the community leader of Killi village, and president of the community leaders of Paphos, confirmed to the Cyprus Mail that the law did state that village mayors must reside in the village they represent. He added that if a leader leaves a village, he should no longer be eligible to represent it.

Efthymiou said, “there are a number of people who hold this title, and they don’t live in the villages they represent.”

He stressed there must be one clear rule for everyone, without political motivation behind ousting a leader.

He proposed a change to the law in the future, enabling people working, but not resident in a village, to hold the position of mukhtar.

“People working in a village fully understand the problems and machinations of a community, and it shouldn’t matter where you sleep,” Efthymiou said.