AN EXCEPTIONALLY low turnout marked the weekend’s referendums on whether local communities should become municipalities, with some places seeing less than a quarter of villagers showing up to cast their vote.
In total, five communities voted in favour of the switchover – Geri, Tseri, Ypsonas, Livadia and Sotera – while Dromoloxia and Meneou residents opted for their communities to be merged.
The Limassol district’s Pano Polemidia, consisting of mainly refugees, voted against merging with Kato Polemidia municipality.
Pano Polemidia had one of the highest turnouts – 56.1 per cent – with 64.89 per cent of voters opting against the merger.
“The transformation of seven communities into municipalities is not only an important step in the direction of our effort to radically reform local authorities, it also signifies the start of a powerful course for progress and development of local societies,” said Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis yesterday.
A spokesman for an independent movement against the merger, Kikis Mavrides, said the result was to be expected. A merger, he added, would have lost Pano Polemidia its status as a pure refugee community and mar the residents’ efforts to, among others, seek title deeds for their houses.
“All the work that was done over the past 30 years will have been for nothing, otherwise,” said Mavrides.
The community’s leader, Koullis Papamichail, was disappointed however, saying the residents’ refusal to accept a merger was down to them being misinformed and having phobias.
“The outcome is respected,” said the leader of the 4,000 residents, who added however that the community was suffering from financial problems and as a result, austerity measures may need to be enforced.
The head of Kato Polemidia, George Georgiou, said the chance had been lost for the two communities to join forces. “The reasoning of small mindedness and insecurity prevailed,” said Georgiou.
Nicosia district communities Geri and Tseri had two of the poorest turnouts, with just 23.4 per cent and 27.6 per cent of residents voting respectively. The majority of those – 79.45 per cent of Tseri residents and 91.87 per cent from Geri – voted for their villages to become municipalities.
Argiris Argyrou, the head of Geri – a community of around 12,000 residents – said on Sunday that he was extremely satisfied with the outcome.
“We will no longer depend on others, we won’t be under guardianship and this will help,” said Argyrou. The time has come, he added, to upgrade Geri and offer its residents improved services.
Tseri leader Alkis Constantinou was equally happy for his community’s some 10,000 residents. “There is now a necessity for our community to move forward,” he said. “We will be stronger, with power and prestige, giving immediate solutions to problems and promote modern works.”
In the Larnaca district, 23.1 per cent of Livadia residents showed up for the referendum, 84.45 per cent of whom voted in favour of becoming a municipality, while the vast majority of Dromolaxia and Meneou residents – with a better turnout of 38.4 per cent and 40.7 per cent respectively – approved a proposal to become a unified municipality.
In Ypsonas, 39 per cent of its residents showed up to vote, with 70 per cent of those calling for their village to be transformed into a municipality.
According to the head of the Interior Ministry’s Election Service, Demetris Demetriou, everything has to go through the Cabinet for approval now.
In the meantime, consultations will now follow between the government and communities to form five-member municipal committees
Provided the communities that voted for their transformation into municipalities are approved by the Cabinet, this will without doubt lead to an increase in costs for the state.
According to Stavros Michael, the head of the Finance Ministry’s Budgetary Department, the cost for maintaining a municipally will inevitably be much higher than that that for a community.
But no official decisions have been made as yet.
However, an Interior Ministry source said the changes would inevitably lead to significantly higher costs for the state – and of course the taxpayer.
“Definitely, the funding given to municipalities is much higher than that given to communities,” the source confirmed.
