INTERIOR MINISTER Eleni Mavrou yesterday officially proclaimed February 17 as the date of the presidential elections.
If none of the candidates garner more than 50 per cent of the vote, then a second round is scheduled for a week later on February 24.
The minister yesterday also appointed the Chief Returning Officer Andreas Assiotis and the rest of the Returning Officers in Cyprus’ election districts and abroad.
According to a decree published in the official gazette, Mavrou has set January 18 as the date for presidential contesters to submit their candidacies.
So far, nine people have announced their intention to run in February’s elections.
The incumbent, President Demetris Christofias, will not seek re-election.
Although counting is not done yet, Mavrou estimates around 545,000 voters will end up on the electoral roll, 15,000 of whom will be voting from abroad.
The minister said around 27 electoral stations will operate in almost as many cities abroad.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Electoral Service head Demetris Demetriou said he expected stations to be set up in 13 countries, to meet the requests of around 15,000 overseas Cypriots who registered an interest in voting in this year’s elections. The majority are in the UK and Greece.
According to the law, to set up an electoral station in a foreign city, at least 50 eligible voters have to register an interest in voting there. In Moscow, for example, this number was not met. However, the chief returning officer has the right to say he won’t set up voting booths in a foreign city, even when the minimum quota is met.
For example, the quota was met for New York, the only city in the US where more than 50 voters registered an interest. Now, Assiotis has to decide whether it is worth the cost of sending public officials to the East Coast for the February 17 election, and possibly have to send them back a week later for a second round. And also, how feasible it is, given that the election closes at 5pm locally, meaning 10am New York time.
As is typical for Cypriot governance, there are no criteria or guidelines defined by law on how the chief returning officer should decide whether to set up an electoral centre abroad or not, leaving it entirely to his discretion.
Demetriou notes that whatever he decides, he will have to justify his position to the parliamentary parties, providing some kind of checks and balances.
“We will try to use our embassies’ staff where possible to save money on sending public servants and paying for flights and hotels etc,” said Demetriou.
The 27 voting centres in 13 countries are:
Greece: Athens, Salonika, Heraklion and Rethymno in Crete, Ioannina, Larissa, Patras, Volos, Rhodes, Komotini
UK: two centres in London, one each in Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham
The rest: Budapest, Hungary; Sofia, Bulgaria;, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Prague, Czech Republic;
Paris, France; Doha, Qatar; New York, USA; Manama, Bahrain; Brussels, Belgium; Berlin, Germany and Vienna, Austria
