The Minister of Interior, Socrates Hasikos, announced to the Parliamentary Committee on Interior that he is withdrawing the bill for the postponement of the municipal / community elections. Later in a written statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the following were mentioned:
"The Minister of Interior, Mr. Socrates Hasikos, attended today a meeting of the Parliament's Internal Affairs Committee to discuss the Bill to extend the term of the Councils elected in the general municipal elections and the general community elections of 2011, by 2 years.
After the Minister's statement that the Bill for postponing the elections will not be voted in his effort for consensus but also to save the Local Government Reform that was and remains for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the main issue, Mr. Hasikos expressed readiness to withdraw the aforementioned Bill and submitted, for consideration, a proposal to the Commission for the normal conduct of the elections of 18 December but with a reduced term of office (2,5 years) of those to be elected. With the consent of the President of the Parliamentary Committee on the Interior, Mr. Eleni Mavrou, the Minister proceeded with further consultation on this proposal with the parties and some party leaders. It became clear, through the consultation, that even this proposal would not be accepted by the majority of the Parliament.
Therefore, the Minister of Interior withdrew the Bill to extend the term of the Councils elected in the general municipal elections and the general community elections of 2011. At the same time, Mr. Hasikos calls on the parties to proceed without delay in the of the Local Government Reform Bills before the landmark of December 18, 2016, for the benefit of the Local Government and, mainly, of the taxable citizen ".
Statements by party representatives
The Chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee, Eleni Mavrou, stated in her statements that "the issue of postponing the elections is no longer before us, it was clear from the positions of the political parties these days".
The Minister of Interior, said Ms. Mavrou, expressed concern seeing the implementation of the Local Government reform for the possible election of new authorities for two and a half years. It is a concern, he noted, that will concern us and we will take a position in the coming days.
"You understand that the schedules are already tight, possible changes must be made very sparingly, taking into account the stage of the process," he added.
DISY MP Nikos Nouris noted that "the forerunner of the policy of the Ministry of Interior is the reform of the Local Government and of course in the second part of today's meeting there was a discussion of new developments as they have been before us, first with the submission of its two laws. Government for the possibility of postponing the municipal elections ".
DISY, noted Mr. Nouris, "first, since last June, realizing the importance of reform and especially from the fact that we consider that it is absolutely democratic first and foremost the citizens themselves, coming to the elections of December 18 , to know exactly what they are voting for, who they are voting for and for which municipalities they are voting for them, we suggested postponing the upcoming municipal elections ".
At the time, he recalled, "Opposition parties, in June, told us that it was too early to discuss at that time that the new reform proposal had not been fully discussed."
Today, he said, "we have reached a final stage in the reform of local government and we believe that the proposal to postpone the elections was the best that could be made to enable the elected, current elected officials of the local government with whom we have agreed. the model of self-government, to be called upon to implement it ".
Nevertheless, he said, the proposal does not appear to be in favor and the government today submitted a second plan through the interior minister, which, he explained, could be a proposal for a reduced term in the upcoming elections precisely to enable implementation. of reform, which is considered by all to be of the utmost importance and should be passed before the forthcoming elections.
Mr. Nouris stated that despite the fact that we insist that our position on the postponement of the elections is the one that should be preferred, we will study whether such a proposal comes before us. Otherwise, he noted, we are proceeding with the upcoming municipal elections with our initial, own plans as they have been prepared by the party's collective bodies.
DIKO MP Panikos Leonidou said his party was in favor of holding normal elections based on constitutional provisions, which are hidden in the Constitution, as basic general principles of law, such as the democratic principle, and principles of popular sovereignty. .
"We, as DIKO, both for legal and political reasons, as well as for moral reasons, believe that the law and the electoral process should be implemented because in this way we strengthen democracy and institutions. Any other development of things creates obstacles in the functioning of democracy and opposes the desire, the people's mandate and the will of the people ", he added.
In addition, he continued, in this way we play on the will of all those people, even the parties, the desire and the operation in order to carry out and implement the law to hold elections within a month and a half. Therefore, he said, by creating all this confusion all the time, I think we are offending both the intelligence of the people and all those who have already made decisions to be candidates and to be included in an election process.
On the issue of two and a half years, he expressed confidence that it is constitutionally justified, adding that "there can be legal elections for a limited period because it is renewed and given through the popular mandate, through a decision of the electorate. We will see it, we will examine it in the party's collective bodies and we will decide ".
Source: KYPE