Over 7,000 candidates vie for 3,200 offices in June elections
A whopping 7,280 candidates are contesting 3,227 public offices in the upcoming June elections, the chief returning officer said on Tuesday.
Elikkos Elia was citing the final tallies after the period for filing candidacies lapsed on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference, Elia said the total number of registered voters comes to 706,534.
The 7,280 candidates are contesting for public office as MEP, head of district self-governance boards, mayor, deputy mayor, municipal councilor, member of school board, community leader or member of a community council.
The main electoral roll features 568,608 Cypriots, of whom 837 are Turkish Cypriots who hold an ID of the Republic of Cyprus and have an address in the south.
The other special electoral rolls are for non-Cypriot Europeans voting for local government authorities, or for MEP, as well as for Turkish Cypriots voting for MEP. The latter category numbers 103,269 registered voters.
The chief returning officer broke down the public offices up for grabs: six MEPs; five heads of the district boards, 17 mayors in the south; nine mayors of ‘occupied’ municipalities; 93 deputy mayors; 316 municipal councilors in the south; 127 municipal councilors of ‘occupied’ municipalities; 212 members of schools boards; 285 community leaders in the south, plus 138 of ‘occupied’ communities; and 1,464 members of community councils in the south, plus 552 council members of ‘occupied’ municipalities.
Elia also said that the printing of the ballots for the European Parliament elections was completed on Monday. Printing of the ballots for the heads of the district boards started on Tuesday.
All ballots handed to voters will be dropped in a single ballot box. The different ballots will be colour-coded.
Blue is the color for the ballot for MEPs; purple for the heads of the district boards; yellow for the mayors; brown for the deputy mayors; white for the municipal councilors; green for the members of school boards; orange for the community leaders; and gray for the members of community councils.
According to the official, in total five objections were filed in relation to two candidates for local government. The first objection related to a person running for municipal councilor in the Paphos district and was rejected. The other four objections concerned a candidate for mayor in the Limassol district; three of those objections were rejected, and the last one is still being examined.
Elia also revealed that on May 1 authorities will roll out the ‘What I Vote For’ app on the elections.gov.cy website. It will be available in the Greek, Turkish and English languages.
On May 10, once the allocation of voters across polling stations is complete, authorities hope to activate the ‘Where I Vote’ service. It will likewise be available in Greek, Turkish and English, and can be accessed online, by phone or by SMS.
Elections for the European Parliament and for local government will take place in tandem on June 9.