MUNICIPAL elections are taking place in 34 municipalities today in the face of growing voter apathy which has prompted predictions that as many as 25 per cent of voters will abstain.
Although voting is still theoretically mandatory for the 546,011 registered voters, this year’s parliamentary elections saw a 22 per cent abstention rate, a sharp increase on the 10.6 per cent abstention rate for the municipal elections of 2006 and the 11 per cent of the presidential elections in 2008.
While abstentions today are unlikely to match the whopping 40.6 per cent no-show in the European parliamentary elections in 2009, all the indications are that a large section of the electorate will fail to heed the call of political parties who have been calling – almost desperately – for voters to turn up and vote, frantically trying to stress the importance of local authority in the functioning of democracy.
“Local authority constitutes the most intimate component of representative democracy with regard to its citizens, because it theoretically addresses the most important issues concerning the people; their day-to-day democratic experience,” said political analyst Louis Igoumenides.
So if local elections theoretically offer voters the best chance of influencing policy – from the building of car parks to renovation projects – why is there so much disillusionment?
“For democracy to function properly, it needs the active participation of well-informed citizens in the decision-making process,” said Igoumenides. “We have neither well-informed citizens, nor an active participation.”
Igoumenides credits high abstention rates to the disillusionment of the public, especially the younger generation who “feel detached from the centres of decision-making, as they consider the political system to be dictating views rather than receiving them”.
“The tragic events of Mari last July and the dwindling Cyprus economy could also play their part,” said Igoumenides.
“Just like in the previous presidential and municipal elections, I feel I have no choice, my voice is not reflected or heard anywhere. How is that democratic?” lamented Cleanthes Cleanthou, a 23-year-old architecture student.
“Why should I vote?” asked Maria Pavlou, a 27-year-old accountant. “My vote will be lost in the hundreds of other votes who blindly follow what their political party says,” she said.
Igoumenides said political parties traditionally use municipal elections as a testing ground to see which political alliances their followers are warmer too for the presidential elections. “It usually has very little to do with local concerns.”
DIKO, despite an acrimonious exit from government a few months ago, is backing the same candidates as AKEL in 24 municipalities. While DIKO and EDEK are backing the AKEL candidate, Andreas Christou in Limassol, they are backing Constantinos Yiorkadjis in Nicosia along with main opposition party, DISY.
DISY, touted by many as courting EDEK for the 2013 presidential elections, are backing common candidates in Paphos and Larnaca with Fidias Sarikas and Andreas Louroudjiatis respectively.
“In its roots, Cyprus society remains fairly conservative and there isn’t any sufficient information going round, so despite the political horse-trading, party discipline is expected to be high as per usual,” said Sofronis Sofroniou, a political analyst.
Sofroniou, who does not expect a high level of abstentions, believes there are a few signs that this may be changing.
“I think we are entering a transitional period where people are starting to realise that municipal elections can be differentiated from presidential elections but are not yet willing to vote against their traditional party line,” said Sofroniou.
Igoumenides noted that the most blatant form of democratic deficit was the relationship of clientilism that political parties had established with the population, which “has infiltrated the social consciousness and has trickled down to almost all political levels”.
“People now automatically think that the solution to any problem has to be found after securing the backing of the political parties,” said Igoumenides.
Debt-ridden municipalities, depending overwhelmingly on state grants for survival and works, are another important factor in electorate disillusionment in local democracy at work.
According to the auditor general’s 2009 report, in 2008 the Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca and Paphos municipalities all had debts of over €25 million each, while their total expenditure was over 100 per cent times higher than their incomes.
Figures for 2011 are expected to paint a much bleaker picture, while DISY candidate in Limassol, Andreas Kyprianou claimed in a televised debate that the Limassol Municipality debt exceeded €500 million.
State grants, constituting approximately 40 per cent of some municipalities’ incomes, were earmarked for cuts of 7 per cent as part of the government’s austerity measures.
Yiannis Antoniadis, the present secretary of the municipalities’ union the UCM, said that the only way for local authority to address its political democratic deficit was for municipalities to become financially independent.
“There has been a serious effort to shore up the finances of the municipalities but the truth is that the municipalities’ major lifeline at the moment is the state,” said Antoniadis.
Despite restructuring their state and bank loans to pay a lower interest rate, municipalities often find that they have to resort to other sources in order to carry out their duties.
Incumbent Limassol mayor, Andreas Christou has been praised for his ability to use €64 million of EU funding to launch works, while donations by citizens have been crucial for other municipalities also.
“Not once in my 30 years as mayor of Nicosia, was I able to use money from the municipality’s standing budget to make any big works,” said former Nicosia mayor, Lellos Demetriades. “Both the museum and the Famagusta Gate were build after private sponsorships and with money from other funds.”
Demetriades said that it was common practice for the state to take money from the municipalities to fill in other holes in the budget and clarified that this made municipal planning impossible.
“The European Union envisages a future of more or less city-states, where local authority will concentrate more power and competence, but in Cyprus there has been no significant transfer of power yet,” said Demetriades.
Sofroniou suggested that if municipalities were able to collect their own taxes, and thus have their own income, then the relationship between citizens and their municipality would become much clearer and stronger.
“As long as local authority depends financially on central authority then you cannot fault citizens for regarding municipal elections as more or less insignificant,” said Sofroniou.
