THREE organisations were yesterday given the status of a political party but a fourth didn’t make the grade.
The new parties are the Citizen’s Rights Bureau of the Popular Socialist Movement (LASOK), the National Popular Front (ELAM) and Cyprus Progressive Cooperation (KYPROS), Attorney-general Petros Clerides yesterday ruled.
This is good news for the new parties as their votes will be included in the second counting of votes and they will be able to elect a member of parliament, given a minimum of 1.8 per cent of the total number of votes in Cyprus.
All parties, including the new ones, will be listed alphabetically in the ballots.
ZYGOS Independent Citizens Movement missed the application deadline and so it will be listed at the end of the ballot, Clerides decided.
The decision came after a marathon meeting with Interior Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Lazaros Savvides yesterday morning to discuss the election law of 2011.
The official submission of candidates takes place today and there remains no time to submit an application amid protests from ZYGOS that they did try to apply last Friday but were not allowed.
They were told they had to wait for the Attorney-general’s decision on whether the four movements were eligible for party status, ZYGOS says.
The three new parties have diverging philosophies ranging from the extreme right wing to the far more liberal left.
One of LASOK’s proposals is to create free tribunals to give low-income members of the public the chance to appeal decisions by state mechanisms and official services.
Far-right wing party ELAM are self-proclaimed chauvinists who are emphasising a Greek lineage of Cypriots, are against illegal immigrants and have had run-ins with the state.
Six of their members were recently accused of insulting President Christofias during an EOKA memorial and were charged with public insult, unlawful assembly and conspiracy to commit a misdemeanour.
Somewhere in the middle of those, KYPROS also calls for a harsher take on immigration and a promotion of a Greek education at schools.
ZYGOS was formed with the aim of exposing corruption in public life and to encourage voting outside of particular parties but instead, for the best candidate available. Parliamentary elections are on May 22.
