TENS OF thousands of local EU nationals could miss out on voting in December’s municipal elections because they can’t get yellow slips, have been deterred by red tape or simply don’t care, it emerged this week.
To register to vote, expats must jump through several bureaucratic hoops: They must obtain a ‘yellow slip’ from the immigration department, get a stamped certificate of residence from their Mukhtar and then collect a registration form from the district administrative office or citizens service centre.
The deadline for registration is not until October 2, However, as one British couple in Paphos discovered last week, it could already be too late.
“My wife and I went to the immigration office Paphos in March and April, and were both told we did not need the yellow forms because we are EU citizens,” Chris Parsons told the Sunday Mail.
“Then, with elections looming, we realised we did need them so we went back to the office. We were told that we could book an appointment in six months later – which would be February.”
Local councillor from Peyia Linda Leblanc confirmed the problems this week. “With the backlog at Paphos immigration, there is currently a wait of about 5-6 weeks for an appointment,” she said. “This means that if someone doesn’t have their immigration papers now, they can’t register to vote.”
And according to Leblanc, this is not the first time that voters have faced such administrative challenges, prompting concerns over a possibly deliberate effort to block foreign voters.
“We had the same problems in 2006 but the government finally took action after lobbying from MP [George] Perdikis and fast-tracked people through so they could register to vote. We may have to request this again… How could it not be deliberate after all this time?”
So far, no fast-track plan has yet been implemented, meaning many voters could have missed their chance.
The situation has even reached a point where mukhtars, councillors and some entrepreneurial types (for a €150 fee) have stepped in, offering to tackle the nightmarish Cypriot bureaucracy on behalf of applicants.
When asked about the yellow slip issue, an evidently unsympathetic Nicosia immigration official said all residents should have their yellow slip anyway, as the law required all EU nationals to obtain one if they planned to stay longer than three months.
However, she did offer one encouraging bit of news. The process in Nicosia – which used to take several frustrating hours of queuing, form filling in person at the immigration centre, followed by a month-long wait has now been streamlined to take just a day.
According to the interior ministry, there were 98,271 registered EU nationals in Cyprus in December but only 12,000 on the electoral register – around double the number who voted in the last elections five years ago. There could also be thousands more who have not yet registered.
“The Electoral Services are pleased that they may have another 6,000 non-Cypriot EU voters registered for the next local election,” said the ministry official who did not wished to be named. “his is good… however, the real issue is why the number is so low, considering that it could be 60,000, not 6,000?”
A low turnout is certainly problematic for several reasons. Firstly, Leblanc says, government budgets are allocated to municipalities according to population sizes, which the government calculates based on the electoral roll. So, if you don’t register, your council gets less money to pay for services for you.
Another reason for increasing the turnout is the surprisingly small number of voters required to win seats on the council.
For example, in the Peyia area, where there are around 20,000 registered voters (around a quarter of whom are EU expats) and just 150 votes were enough to elect a councillor in the last election.
In the nearby Ha Potami area, homeowners association chairman John Wright is following Leblanc’s lead and rallying voters to place.
“We’re likely to get around 150 votes which should be sufficient to win us one or two seats on the council… In five years we could get 500 or 600,” Wright said.
In the bigger cities, the running can be equally close. For example, Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou was elected in 2006 with just three per cent more votes than her rival Anna Marangou. Far closer was the contest in nearby Aglantsia where Mayor Andreas Petrou was elected after receiving just seven more votes than his rival.
Asked about the forthcoming elections, Mavrou said they offered residents the chance to give feedback on councils’ achievements
“They are a good opportunity for extended dialogue on the vision for a city… At the same time elections bring changes and while it takes time (for the new council) to get adjusted it does bring new ideas,” she said.
In the run up to this year’s elections, slated for December 11, many municipalities will be rushing to wrap up projects and prepare the way for their successors.
“(Elections) do create practical problems. Daily issues cannot be dealt with alongside election activities and it takes time while the new council takes over, so now we have to make sure all urgent issues are dealt with before the end of this council’s term,” Mavrou said, adding that Nicosia Municipality will work until the end of November at the latest,
“We will try to avoid reaching policy decisions that would be demanding for the next council.”
And after the elections?
“The first priority for the next council is to deal with the economic situation that has defined these months and the coming months. Secondly, the council has the candidacy for the European capital of culture award, which is shared with neighbouring municipalities and Larnaca,” she said.
n Registration forms for the municipal elections for EU citizens can be obtained from the nearest District Administration Office or Citizen Service Centre, or downloaded from the webpage of the Ministry of the Interior www.moi.gov.cy
