MORE THAN 400 candidates are competing today for 56 seats in the House of Representatives, having gone through a lengthy, and for many, expensive campaign that far exceeded the €30,000 threshold set by the law.
Dinners, cocktails, expensive gifts, billboards, newspaper ads and the internet were all used to lure voters into voting for the 412 candidates, each peddling their political positions, ideology and the change they promise to bring.
While all may claim they are standing out of burning desire to serve the public, cynics are quick to point out the perks that come with the job.
Lawmakers reject that their income is enough to entice someone to run for office for the salary alone.
“You must be joking,” Green party deputy Giorgos Perdikis said. “MP salaries in Cyprus are low compared to those of other countries.”
Deputies receive some €85,000 annually whether they work flat out or put in just a few hours a day.
Despite Perdikis’ comments, many would consider the money a more-than-comfortable salary especially as only half of it is taxable. And then, upon retirement, at the age of 60, MPs receive almost €63,000 per year in pension.
For instance a former MP who served for two terms (10 years), and collects a pension for 15 years would receive some €1.8 million in total revenues.
Perdikis concedes that some of his colleagues do not deserve their €85,000 a year. Some MPs seldom show up for committee meetings on weekdays or appear ill-informed on a topic during discussion. Some do not even know what they are voting for.
“But the money is not enough for those who dedicate themselves to their parliamentary work,” Perdikis said.
Beyond the salary, the job guarantees all-expenses travel abroad, high social status and a tax-free car. And they get to keep their previous jobs.
For some, being an MP can, intentionally or not, boost their clientele.
“Most of the current MPs make double or triple from their (other) jobs than their MP salary,” Perdikis said. “The salary of the MP is pocket money for them.”
It is a matter of taking advantage of the position and the connections created through it.
“An MP belonging to a large party gets many chances to amass wealth beyond their salary – they are given shares, appointed to company boards, receive gifts and opportunities to buy land,” he said.
A former MP spoke of some colleagues driving cars from the same company.
“I was not part of this but these things existed,” the former lawmaker said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On a daily basis, the former MP faced constituents demanding a service as payment for their vote. Clientelism is often viewed as the foundation of Cypriot politics.
“Most people ask you to do a service and there are things that are ridiculous,” the former MP told the Sunday Mail.
Among the ‘ridiculous’ voter demands, he received, were help to get a driver’s licence for someone who had failed the test a couple of times, acting as a match-maker and securing a visa for someone’s foreign girlfriend.
The MP said he had run for office because “I liked being involved in public affairs … parliamentary work. I liked to create and being in touch with people.”
But then he got caught up in being asked to pull strings for his voters.
“These are the things you do when you are there and you don’t realise. But later, as years pass, you realise it is ridiculous,” he said. “I think there is no dignity.”
A particular grievance for many MPs is the number of funerals and weddings they have to attend each year.
“You do all this because everyone does; you are compared with the others. It is the service that counts,” said the former MP.
But their presence is only important as long as they are in office and have power.
“When it ends it is like they never knew you,” he said. “This is what’s tragic. It is as if you never existed.”
