AFTER a month-long break, the new House of Representatives (2011-2016) yesterday conducted its first order of business in appointing the chairmen and members of the parliamentary committees.
Main opposition DISY, having prevailed in May’s legislative elections, got the lion’s share of committee chairmanships, six in total: Commerce, Health, Legal Affairs, Audit, Foreign Affairs and Education.
Ruling AKEL will preside over the Agriculture, Interior, Labour, Environment and Refugees committees.
DIKO meanwhile retained the key Finance committee, and also chairs the Communications and Human Rights committees. Socialists EDEK are in charge of the Defence Committee, and the European Party chair the Institutions Committee.
In a departure from past practice, House Speaker Yiannakis Omirou said parliament would reconvene earlier this year following the summer hiatus. Committees will begin convening on September 1, followed by the first plenum session set for September 15.
Parliament adjourns for the summer normally on July 15, the anniversary of the 1974 coup.
EDEK’s Omirou, elected House Speaker last week after a close vote, has pledged parliamentary reform – including abolishing a number of committees deemed superfluous – and has called for cost-cutting. In order to lead by example, Omirou has asked for a reduction in his personal security detail and his office staff.
The matter of former DIKO MP Zacharias Koulias – who has been ousted from his party for insubordination but has kept his seat in the House – was quickly settled: the renegade politician was appointed as a full member of two parliamentary committees.
But a droll scene played out yesterday in parliament as Koulias and another DIKO deputy, Athena Kyriakidou, shuffled from seat to seat in a bid to sit as far apart as possible.
Kyriakidou spearheaded efforts to have Koulias ejected from DIKO after he disobeyed the party line by voting for another nominee for House Speaker. She has repeatedly referred to him as a “traitor.”
The chair-shuffling sequence was apparently triggered when Koulias, now ostracised from the DIKO bench, took up another seat behind Kyriakidou, who felt the rogue MP was too close for comfort.
Avoiding eye contact, the two finally managed to come up with a sweet spot.
And in a sign that it’s back to business as usual, relatives and friends of prison inmates demonstrated outside the House lobbying rookie MPs to exert their influence for a Presidential pardon.
The support group cited the fact that, on the occasion of Republic’s 50th anniversary, the President issued a pardon to a large number of inmates except those convicted for murder or for drugs-related or sex crimes.
In the meantime, however, certain inmates convicted for drugs-related crime have been released despite the Presidential order, pointing to preferential treatment for some, the group says.
