CANDIDACIES for next month’s municipal elections were submitted on Thursday. It was another opportunity to hear the two clichés we hear every time there are local elections – all candidates would improve the quality of life of citizens and ensure more active involvement of citizens in local democracy.
Once the elections are over, we return to the same old practices of municipal councils struggling to make ends meet and begging the central government for money, primarily to pay their big payrolls and, if there is some cash to spare, to improve the quality of life of their citizens. As for the boast of more power to local government which means more representative democracy, it is a myth.
In effect, local government in Cyprus has been an excuse for the creation of more overpaid, public sector jobs that central government and the political parties could distribute among their respective supporters. This is why we have a staggering 24 municipalities, which apart from being big employers, offer public posts to the lower-ranking members of the political parties.
It is obvious that it is uneconomical to have so many municipalities – the greater Nicosia area has seven – offering the same services. Apart from those in the tourist resorts, the rest are heavily in debt, able only to offer the most basic services as most of their revenue is spent on wages. If greater Nicosia had two municipalities instead of seven, much fewer people would be employed in unproductive work, and there would be significantly more money to improve the quality of life of citizens.
Financially robust municipalities would also be in a position to put the idea of more power to local government that is a long-standing EU objective, into practice. If a municipality had money it would be in a position finance citizens’ initiatives for the community, provide more social services such as children’s play-groups, support for the elderly, youth clubs not to mention the improvement of infrastructure, including the creation of more parks the building of pavements.
Financially sound local authorities would also become more independent from central government, which is the main aim of local democracy. As things are central government in co-operation with the political parties have complete control of municipalities, essentially, preventing citizens who do don’t belong to political establishment from having a say in local government.
We all witnessed the shabby horse-trading that took place among party leaders as they chose mayoral candidates. How well these candidates would serve a municipality was the last thing on their mind, as they exclusively used next month’s elections for the building of alliances in the 2013 presidentials and maintaining internal party balances.
If we want strong local democracy we need to fight for it but first there must be a rationalisation of the system of local government. Municipalities must be merged so there are significantly fewer of them. This would give them more financial power which would in turn make them more independent of central government. They could then start taking more powers from central government instead of being under the authority of the interior minister. This is how local democracy is built.
