A handful of votes decided the mayoral race of five municipalities in Sunday’s elections, with the Limassol battle between incumbent Andreas Christou and contender Nicos Nicolaides too close to call until the opening of the last ballot-box, which tipped the scales in the challenger’s favour by nine votes.
“It was a verdict by the Limassol voters that certainly leaves no winners or losers,” Nicolaides said.
“The town has given a new mayor the opportunity to govern, but in no way has it shown disrespect to [outgoing two-term mayor] Andreas Christou.”
Other close races included the municipalities of Famagusta – sitting mayor Alexis Galanos re-elected by a margin of 23 votes – and Engomi, where mayor Zacharias Kyriacou secured a second term with a razor-thin 47-vote win.
Strovolos saw one of the most impressive upsets of the day, where incumbent Lazaros Savvides came in third, with 22.62 per cent, trailing runner-up Stella Dimitriou-Mishaouli, who won 27.45 per cent, and surprise victor Andreas Papacharalambous, voted for by 28.25 per cent. Papacharalambous ran a rogue campaign after his party – Disy – decided to back the sitting mayor.
“The voters have voted purely with local government in mind,” he said.
“I didn’t make any wild pledges on the campaign trail because I am aware of the realities. The situation is difficult, money is tight, and we need to get to work.”
Final turnout for the municipal elections islandwide was 62.3 per cent, 37.7 per cent abstention which was around 9 per cent higher than the 2011 elections. Turnout was down in all districts except Larnaca.
In Nicosia 57.5 per cent voted compared with 66 per cent in 2011. In Limassol it was 56.2 per cent compared with 65 per cent in 2011. Famagusta district saw a 72.5 per cent turnout compared with 80 per cent in 2011. Larnaca was 72.3 per cent compared with 71 per cent in 2011 and Paphos 74 per cent compared with 83 per cent in 2011.
Polis Chrysochous in the Paphos district showed the largest turnout with 81.61 per cent, whereas the lowest percentage of registered voters, 39.76 per cent, showed up to vote for mayor of occupied Morphou.
The biggest win was marked by Andreas Kaouris, elected mayor of occupied Lysi with 71.02 per cent. A close second was Lapithos’ – also an occupied municipality in the Kyrenia district – Neoptolemos Kotsapas, who won 69.46 of the popular vote, and Nicosia’s Constantinos Yiorkadjis, who won re-election with 68.86 per cent.
“I stand ready to continue the work we started five years ago,” Yiorkadjis said on Monday morning.
“We will start the big projects we have prepared and secured funding for.”
His rival Panayiotis Stavrinides who garnered 31.14 per cent, had conceded as early as 7.30pm saying he had called Yiorkadjis to congratulate him and said they would speak soon about issues concerning the capital that they were both concerned with.
In Paphos incumbent Phedonas Phedonos led with 55.66 per cent to Akis Chrysomilos’ 44.34 per cent. The latter conceded just before 8pm saying he had called Phedonos to congratulate him.
“Although many describe the public as self-serving, I want to warn all who are involved in public life to beware,” Phedonos said.
“You would be surprised at how much the voters can appreciate good governance and honesty in handling public money, and they have credited me with this.”
In Larnaca Andreas Vyras with 35.47 per cent, beat main rival, acting mayor Petros Christodoulou. He had four other rivals, all of whom trailed significantly.
“There has been some stagnation in our town and we have to get to work,” Vyras said.
“We must work together to start doing the work the voters have entrusted us with.”
Taking advantage of the one-round, winner-take-all electoral system, Kyriacos Xydias – one of six candidates in the municipality – won the Yermasoyia, Limassol, mayorship with 26.73 per cent of the vote.
In some cases, the total number of registered voters was so small that the winner got elected with few more than the votes his circle of friends and relatives might have earned him, as in Pano Lefkara, where former MP and justice minister Sofoklis Sofokleous won with 370 votes – or 49.6 per cent of total votes cast. In Kyrenia, winner Rita Elisseou-Komodiki won with a vote tally of 471, or 49.79 per cent.
Of 39 municipalities across Cyprus, all but three elected a mayor in Sunday’s elections. The remaining three had already seen a new mayor last month – Derynia’s Antros Karayiannis, Livadia’s Marios Armenis, and occupied Karavas’ Nicos Hadjistefanou – when it was established that they were running unopposed.
Nine municipalities fall within the Turkish-held areas in the north, but mayoral elections are still held for them, more symbolically than from a need to keep the municipalities’ affairs in order.
Despite this, of some political significance are the mayorships of Famagusta and Morphou – along with the northern-most town of Kyrenia, the most populous areas pre-1974 – both under negotiations for return under Greek Cypriot administration following an agreed settlement to the Cyprus problem.
In addition to their normal duties, the newly-elected mayors and municipal councils have the added burden of implementing local administration reform, deemed necessary due to the large number of municipalities, most of which carry substantial debts.
Months ahead of Sunday’s elections, Interior Minister Socratis Hasikos spoke out in favour of postponing the elections until the reform has been implemented, arguing that the old office-holders could be trusted to own the agreed measures, which include cost-cutting through the clustering of municipalities and services. The proposal was dead in the water due to resistance from parliament.
