Ayia Napa to go ‘live’ with webcast of municipal council sessions

THE inaugural meeting of the newly-elected Ayia Napa municipal council will be broadcast live over the internet, it was announced on Friday.

The session, scheduled for noon Tuesday, January 3, will be held at town hall.

In a statement, the popular resort town’s municipality said “the first session will be broadcast live on social networking sites, so that the public can be informed”.

Re-elected mayor Yiannis Karousos said the municipality’s new initiative is “pioneering transparency and good governance, and we believe it will give both the new municipal council an added incentive for good governance and a contribution to Ayia Napa, and allow the public to refer back to municipal council sessions”.

“The live transmission of the municipal council’s sessions is but one of the transparency measures to be introduced,” Karousos said.

“The goal is for all council meetings to be broadcast live.”

According to the Ayia Napa mayor, the next session will see the introduction of proposals for the release of council meeting minutes to the public domain, as well as an attendance register showing how many meetings each councillor attended.

Another proposal will link councillors’ pay with their attendance record, and the public will be able to rate the municipal council and the services it offers on a six-monthly basis, with the ratings also slated for release.

“Our goal is to make Ayia Napa the model of transparency and good governance,” Karousos said.

The council’s sessions will be broadcast live from the municipality’s Youtube account, which can be accessed at www.youtube.com/ayianapatv.

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