Sylikiotis: Elections will go ahead as planned

Interior minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said today that elections will go ahead on Sunday, despite public sector trade union PASYDY’s calls to civil servants not to work.

”We will take every measure to address problems that might arise,” said Sylikiotis, adding that there will be another meeting on the issue with the political parties tomorrow at 10am.

Chief Returning Officer Andreas Assiotis urged PASYDY to reconsider its position and said he will send a letter to the trade union, seeking a written answer on whether is willing to change that decision.

Assiotis also asked the chairmen of the polling stations to send him a fax, telling him whether they will work or not in Sunday’s elections.

Civil servants are staging a 12-your strike until 19:00 today in response to new austerity measures approved by the House of Representatives.

The strike includes union members at hospitals and airports, with emergency staff on duty at the hospitals.

Unions have called on civil servants to down tools on Sunday and boycott the elections.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.