Cyprus to allow overseas voting for first time

THE Election service announced yesterday that for the first time special election centres would be operating at the island’s embassies abroad for February’s presidential elections.

The election centres abroad would be set up in countries where the number of voters justified doing so, according to the number of declarations to be submitted by January 2, 2003.

The Election service would be drafting a special list with the names of all those – students and Cypriots temporarily residing abroad – who wished to vote in the country they are currently based.

But the arrangement could prove irrelevant if a settlement of the Cyprus problem is reached, as this would lead to the cancellation of the elections ahead of a new constitution.

Those interested can obtain forms from Cyprus’ embassies abroad as well as from the offices of the district administrations and the Central Election Service at the ministry of interior.

They can also contact the press and information office through its website: www.pio.gov.cy

Student applications can be filled by parents in Cyprus and submitted to the Election Service or the district administrations.

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.