Nicosia: A meeting scheduled for today between AKEL executives in the province of Famagusta and lawyers who will legally lift the burden of cases for the municipalities of occupied Famagusta and Ayia Napa, will launch the next steps that do not seem to be other than the Electoral Court. .
The case of Famagusta, which is considered identical to that of the Municipality of Limassol, will focus on invalid ballots, their large number and the variety of decisions per polling station. In the case of Famagusta, much lower tones are observed than for the Municipality of Limassol, which has been reduced to a major issue.
Many AKEL party officials note that an "undeclared war" lurks in Limassol aimed at victimizing the Provincial Secretariat, which has borne the brunt of the municipal election campaign.
The specific executives raised the glove thrown by party members or collaborators for the re-election of Andreas Christos in the city hall of Limassol. They stressed that what they are protesting about the District Secretariat is unsupported. The executives of the Provincial Secretariat as well as of the committee, noted the same sources, ended the long pre-election campaign as it happened in all the provinces. A door-to-door campaign was carried out in all the houses of the Municipality of Limassol, 30 thousand leaflets were distributed, rallies and pre-election events were organized and in no case was the District Secretariat absent.
AKEL Limassol denies that not all polling stations were counted with counters from the beginning to the end of the process and notes that organizationally, communicatively and procedurally nothing less was done than in all large municipalities as well as the regional ones throughout Pancyprian.
Significantly, party officials note that the party mechanism has shrunk to a large extent since the first half of 2013.
And yet this deficit in professional executives was covered by voluntary work by executives who were present throughout the election campaign.
However, they do not dispute that there was optimism for a comfortable victory of the candidate for re-election Andreas Christou and that there may have been complacency in the electoral base that supported the former mayor. However, they answer that the polls that showed the gap open in favor of Mr. Christos were not commissioned by the party of the Left. They deny any responsibility for the surrounding atmosphere that was created and caused complacency among the voters.
The lawyers handling the case of the Municipality of Limassol have in their hands data that they have collected from executives who worked in various polling stations and concern the whole process from the time of voting until the final announcement of the election results. In addition to the invalid ballots, the lawyers' microscope also contains testimonies for the identification of ballots that did not bear, as provided by law, stamps and which were sealed at the polling station, after securing the consent of the representatives of all parties as well as candidates.
In the Municipality of Ayia Napa, the presence of a large number of community voters in the electoral list of the Municipality is being examined.
In last December's municipal elections, more than 16.500 eligible voters from other EU member states.
Most come from Greece, Britain, Bulgaria and Romania. Paphos is the province with the most community members. They amount to 8.106. With 2.726 follows the province of Limassol. 2.414 community voters are registered in the electoral list of the province of Nicosia. There are 1.735 community members registered in the province of Larnaca. In the province of Famagusta, where the municipality of Ayia Napa is located, the total number of voters from European countries is 1.759.
Writes: Androula Taramounta
Source: The Liberal