The political events that dominated the passing year
It is slowly coming to an end in 2021 with the citizens proceeding with a review of the year that is leaving in every field but also the challenges and the events that the new year brings.
Challenges concerning politics, economics and the pandemic. Political developments in Cyprus in the year that is leaving us and essentially the political events that stood out in 2021 both in the party scene of the country as well as in the Cyprus issue.
Specifically, although the year the pandemic is leaving us was the one that occupied the news most intensely, the MPs of last May and the Pentameris for the Cyprus issue in Geneva occupied the news with our website presenting the 3 most important political developments in the country.
Record of candidacies and parties
Starting with the Parliamentary elections of May 30, they are recorded as the elections in which we had a record turnout of parties as a total of 15 political parties participated and more than 650 candidates. In fact, the pre-election was characterized by many political analysts as pre-election toxic without substantial proposals coming to the table but the mutual accusations dominating.
Specifically, 366.608 out of 557.836 registered voters or 65,72% voted in the May parliamentary elections. The abstention amounted to 191.228 votes or 34,28%. The valid ballots were 357.714 (97,57%), the invalid 6.824 (1,86%) and the blank 2.070 (0,56%).
Seven parties succeeded in entering the Parliament, namely the Democratic Alarm which secured a percentage of 27,77% or 99.332 votes, AKEL a percentage of 22,34% or 79.910 votes, DIKO a percentage of 11,29% or 40.392 votes. The fourth party was ELAM with a percentage of 6,78% or 24.255 votes, the 5th was EDEK with a percentage of 6,72% or 24.025 votes, the 6th party was the Democratic Party with a percentage of 6,10% or 21.834 votes, while the Movement of Ecologists also succeeded. - Citizens' Cooperation with a percentage of 4,41% or 15.761 votes.
The Active Citizens - Movement En. Cyp. Hunters with a percentage of 3,27% or 11.711 votes, the Change of Generation with 2,82% or a percentage of 10.096, the Solidarity with 2,31% or 8.254 votes, Famagusta for Cyprus with 1,56% or 5.596 votes, the Awakening with 1,35% or 4.839 votes, Pnoi Laou with 1,28% or 4.585 votes, the Party for the Animals of Cyprus with 1% or 3.593 votes. As well as the independent candidates Evangelos Pourgouridis, with 0,44% or 1.571 votes and Andreas Christou with 0,30% or 1.078 votes. The Patriotic Coalition secured 0,11% or 376 votes, Abraham Themistocleous 246 votes or 0,07%, Christodoulos Christodoulou 0,03% or 105 votes and Mardapittas Chrysanthos with 74 votes or 0,01%. Also Sparos Phoebus received 42 votes (0,01%) and Chrysanthou Spyros 39 votes 0,01%.
The election of a woman in the Presidency of the Parliament
Last year we had for the first time the election of a woman in the Presidency of the Parliament with Annita Dimitriou being the Speaker of the Parliament since last May.
Annita Dimitriou was supported in the second round of the election process by the parties DISY with 17 votes, DIPA with 4 votes and ELAM with 4 votes.
With the beginning of the election process of the new President, all the Leaders of the 6 parliamentary parties nominated their candidacies, except for DISY, whose candidate was Annita Dimitriou.
In the process of the first round, the first bloc was formed between the parties with DIKO and EDEK voting for each other and gathering both Nikolas Papadopoulos and Marinos Sizopoulos from 13 votes.
During the second round, a second bloc of alliance was formed with the Ecologists voting for Andros Kyprianou who received 18 votes.
Then, during the voting for Annita Dimitriou, the third bloc of alliance was formed with DISY, DIPA and ELAM to give the Presidency with 25 votes to the DISY candidate since the winner in this round needed at least 22 votes.
For the first time on the table the solution of two States
2021 in the Cyprus issue can be characterized as years of stagnation after the election at the end of 2020 under the leadership of the Turkish Cypriots of Ersin Tatar.
Specifically, the Pentamer negotiations last April in Geneva ended in a deadlock, since the action of the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey to submit their position for a two-state solution, did not give any room for another outcome. What the UN Secretary General managed was for the 2 parties to agree on a new Five-Party Conference that would take place in 5-2 months, something that did not happen.
In fact, despite the meeting between Anastasiadis and Tatar and Antonio Guterres last September in New York, it was not possible until today to appoint a new Special Envoy for the Cyprus issue.
Drilling in the Cyprus EEZ
At the same time, despite the Turkish challenges, the Republic of Cyprus recently resumed drilling in the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and specifically in block 10.
With the Glaucus_2 evaluation drilling, the drilling program resumes in the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus.
At the same time, at the beginning of December, the Cypriot Government and the joint venture ExxonMobil and Qatar Energy signed the Exploration and Proportional Production Sharing Contract and the Hydrocarbon Exploration Permit for block 5 in the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Postponement of Municipal elections
Under normal circumstances today, the discussion would focus on the analysis of the results of the Municipal Elections (scheduled for December 12) which, however, were postponed with the existing Municipal and Community Councils to be extended until May 2024 due to the debate. carried out for the reform of Local Government.
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