Bills on horizontal voting ready for House vote

The four bills proposing to introduce horizontal voting in elections – except for the presidential ballot – are expected to go before the plenum by early next month, MPs said on Monday.

Horizontal, or cross-voting, permits a voter to select names from more than one party list.

Ruling Disy has tabled a legislative proposal for horizontal voting in local government elections, the Citizens’ Alliance for parliamentary elections, and the Greens, one on parliamentary and one on European Parliament elections.

Within the House interior affairs committee, where the bills are being discussed, Disy, the Citizens’ Alliance, Solidarity and the Greens are positively inclined toward cross-voting in the European Parliament ballot.

Main opposition Akel and Elam said they are dead-set against horizontal voting on principle, whereas it’s understood that Diko and socialists Edek do not wish to commit to a position at this stage.

But committee chair Eleni Mavrou (Akel) told reporters that the majority of MPs on the committee are opposed to the bills, which will be taken before the plenum in early November.

She said her own party is sceptical of cross-voting “because we don’t face the problems beleaguering the rest of the party-political system, meaning people’s distrust of politics and rising abstention.

“Horizontal voting, we believe, only serves to exacerbate the problems and the malaise inside the political system.”

She went on to argue that cross-voting is not used in the majority of European countries.

For his part, Edek leader and MP Marinos Sizopoulos said that changes to the voting system should not be introduced with less than 12 months to go to the next elections.

He was referring to the European Parliament ballot, expected to be held in May 2019.

Proponents argue that the low turnout in recent years reflects a lack of interest in politics and that horizontal voting would galvanise indifferent voters.

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