Iacovou and Nami meet to discuss governance

WHILE THE two leaders did their rounds in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, their aides met yesterday at the UN-controlled Nicosia airport to work on the ‘governance’ chapter as part of direct talks aimed at reunifying the island.

Presidential Commissioner Georgios Iacovou and aide to Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, Ozdil Nami, met yesterday for 90 minutes after getting the green light from the two leaders to try and iron out the differences remaining between the two sides on that issue.

The two discussed the ‘executive’ and how citizens of a united Republic of Cyprus would elect the proposed President and Vice-President. The Greek Cypriot side proposes that the rotating presidency should be voted by direct suffrage while the Turkish Cypriot side prefers the indirect method of voting through the senate.

“We exchanged views about the pros and cons of the two methods. We decided there is merit in having these discussions,” said Nami.

The Turkish Cypriot aide told the Cyprus Mail that there was scope for the aides reaching agreement at this level. “It seems there is potential for convergence. The two sides are not worlds apart on this,” said Nami.

The two aides decided to hold more meetings on these issues though no date was set as Nami has prior engagements in the near future. The possibility of letting “technical people” work on the issues in the meantime was not ruled out.

If the process of using the two aides to iron out points of divergence once the main principles have been identified by the leaders proves successful, then it is “very likely” the leaders will use them for other issues too, he noted.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.