The possibility of postponing the municipal elections of next December returns to the fore in order to coincide with the European elections in the context of the effort to reform the Local Government.
The debate on such a possibility seems to be reopening, after the relevant position of the Minister of Interior Socrates Hasikos in Parliament the day before yesterday.
Speaking before the Parliamentary Committee on the Interior, Mr. Hasikos not only appeared positive in the face of such a prospect, but also willing to contribute in this direction, taking a similar initiative.
"That is," he said, "to ensure that the local government reform bill is passed and on the other hand, if there is consent and acceptance by the parties in Parliament, why not, they decide not to vote for a postponement, so that coincide with the European elections? "If the House of Representatives votes that we will not have elections and we postpone them so that they can be held together with the European elections, it is a constitutional right, and in my opinion an obligation, if we want to do the right job in local government reform."
However, despite the aforementioned position of the Minister of Interior, as estimated by party sources, it is very difficult for the parties to agree to the postponement of the municipal elections, even if individual executives from various party areas do not categorically reject such an idea.
"Incredible chaos"
Meanwhile, in a statement, the Movement of Ecologists-Citizens' Cooperation states that "two and a half years of reform in local government we hear from the Anastasiadis government and we do not see reform. A reform that we expected from the previous government. On the contrary, we are witnessing an incredible chaos with constant regressions on the part of the Ministry of Interior. Now, a few months before the municipal elections, Mr. Hasikos came to think and drop the bomb of the postponement of the elections for 2019. Well, is there no planning in this Government? Mr. Hasikos had all the time to bring the issue to the Parliament in time to be discussed and to reach a right decision for all. "Instead, with our souls in our mouths, we will run to the top five to decide on such serious issues."
Hasikos is ready to take the initiative to postpone the Primary School
The bill for the reform of the Local Self-Government is a "reversal" in relation to what is in force today, and what is sought is the "radical reform", said on Tuesday before the Parliamentary Committee on Interior, the Minister of Interior, Socrates Hasikos.
"It is not just an improvement that we are making, it is a radical reform, it is a reversal in relation to the legislation that exists today for the Local Self-Government", said the Minister of Interior and added that the bill in its current form, "passed all phases, and in the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs and exchanged views between Parliament and the Government ”.
He said that there was a "conscious effort on both sides, so as to formulate a final text, which was a product of consensus so that the specific bill could pass through the plenary session of Parliament."
The Minister of Interior said that “a good job must be done so that the Local Government can get out of the many deadlocks on the one hand and on the other to have the basis institutionalized through legislation to be able to work the next years ”.
He stated that "a law cannot be considered to have been made and finished, on the contrary, there is the possibility of evolution where and where it is judged that it does not satisfy through new efforts to amend the legislation to improve".
Mr. Hasikos stated that "there is the mood, the possibility and the time, because the composition of the members of the Internal Affairs Committee of the Parliament has changed, to have another last reading and one last consultation, that is why we are here today".
He explained that "the bills concern the provincial complexes, the Law on Communities and the Law on Municipalities" and the purpose is "the creation of provincial complexes of local self-government, the creation of local complexes of local self-government, to strengthen the local government system with emphasis on transparency and modernization of the regulatory framework ”.
The Minister of Interior said that "the new legislative framework for the operation of Local Government has a key feature which is the mandatory aggregation of services and not to be left to whether the local authorities agree or even want to cooperate with each other."
He said that "in this way, the efficiency of the local government will be enhanced, responsibilities are transferred to the provincial complexes, such as the issuance of urban planning and building permits, while water supply, sewerage and solid waste management services are also transferred".
On the other hand, the local complexes will undertake services such as household waste collection, green services, cleaning and more.
The Minister of Interior stated "I am sure that all stakeholders, Government, Parliament, Union of Municipalities, Union of Communities, agree that we must proceed with the reform while we agree on the mandatory clustering and the common services which will be provided by law" .
In statements after the completion of the work of the Committee of Interior, Mr. Hasikos said that "the reform in the Local Self-Government from the moment it will be voted as an institutional framework, as legislation, cannot function alone without regulations".
So, he continued, "it takes the necessary time, the necessary time, for the regulations to always be formed in a climate of consensus and cooperation with the Parliament, and it takes time to do that, and beyond that, it also takes time for them to be able to ( to do) everything that is foreseen in the reform, such as the councils, sewerage and others that we have today, which will be abolished under the new legislation ”.
The Minister of Interior said that "the Cypriot taxpayer will taste this overthrow, this serious reform with which this law will be implemented and what we said today in Parliament is that we must be clearer regarding the selective reduction of Municipalities".
He stated that "clearly today, as a Government, we have submitted to the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs that the bill should include the reduction of municipalities in the first phase from 30 to 22, so with the start of the reform which we see coincides with the elections, the people will be called to vote for mayors and members of municipal and community councils instead of 30, 22 ”.
On the issue of shifting the Municipal Elections to coincide with the European elections, the Minister of Interior said that "no one dares to ask for a postponement" of the Municipal Elections.
He said that he had stated within the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs, "that we need time to be ready and because someone has to take the initiative, I do not refuse to take this initiative, that is, to ensure that the local government reform bill is passed. and on the other hand, if there is consent and acceptance from the parties in Parliament, why not, they decide not to vote for a postponement so that it coincides with the European elections ".
He noted that "according to the law, we have elections in December, and the absolute ruler of whether a law is valid and will continue to be valid is the House of Representatives".
As the Minister of Interior said, "if the House of Representatives votes that we will not have elections and we postpone them so that they take place together with the European elections, it is a constitutional right and in my opinion an obligation if we want to do the right job in reforming local government".
Regarding the taxation on real estate, he wished "on Thursday the Parliament to clarify the issue with the taxation on real estate".
He said that "we, as the Government, brought a bill that reduced the 100 million (collection of Real Estate Taxes) to 45 million, then other suggestions came in, there are other views, we are waiting for the Parliament, in its wisdom, to finally decide ”.
The Minister of Interior, during the session, asked the representative of the Audit Office, as the bill is being studied by the Office, "as it has been formed through all the discussions we had, to work on it, and everyone's point of view is respected, and much more, of the Auditor General of the Republic, on the one hand, and on the other hand we are discussing politics, the issue is political ".
The Chairman of the Committee on Interior, AKEL MP, Eleni Mavrou, said that it is not intended to have a long discussion and sessions on the bill and the goal is for the Committee to work more practically.
The Mayor of Nicosia, Konstantinos Giorkatzis, referred to the meeting, the great importance of clarifying the way the municipalities receive their revenues, to settle their debts, voluntary retirement plans within the Local Government, which, as he said, should to delegate responsibilities for social issues.
The President of the Union of Communities Andreas Kitromilidis stressed the need to pass the bill on Local Government before the Municipal Elections.
After the meeting, DISY MP Andreas Kyprianou said that DISY "unreservedly supports the reform of Local Government, the general framework of legislation as it has been sufficiently discussed and has almost reached an agreement with all political forces that it should to be voted on as soon as possible ".
He said that "beyond that, issues that will remain pending should be discussed and clarified through the discussion and completion of the discussion of the regulations, which you understand in order for the legislation to be implemented, regulations should be passed."
Mr. Kyprianou said that “such issues are the issue of the boundaries of the complexes, the responsibilities they will have, the financial viability of the new situation, the merger of Water Supply and Sewerage Boards, the election of the members of the secondary Local Government and how is it, whether it will be direct or indirect and many more ".
He said that "at the moment the state has reached a point and has before it a general framework which is largely agreed, so, in our view, is that we must proceed to the enactment of legislation."
Concluding, he stated that "the great discussion in detail on the issues which are really difficult will take place during the discussion of the regulations, which will be a precondition for the implementation of the legislation".
The President of the Movement of Ecologists - Citizens' Cooperation, George Perdikis, referring to the processes between the parties regarding the promoted legislation for real estate taxation, said that we try to bring closer the views of DIKO and AKEL.
He stated that "we have made some mediation suggestions in order to be able to further increase the tax scale on properties with higher value in order to approach the AKEL positions that transfer the burden of taxation to properties with higher value."
Mr. Perdikis said that the issue of a tax that may be discussed very seriously with AKEL and DIKO may arise again.
"We are in favor of reducing taxes so that there is real relief for small owners, while we do not want in any case to become a bridge for the interests of large owners to cross," said the President of the Environmental Movement.
Source: REPORTER