On December 18 and not on January 2, which would be in force under the usual electoral legislation, new voters will be able to register on the electoral rolls, based on the relevant bill that will be called for approval by Parliament.
The bill was discussed today in the Parliamentary Committee on Interior in the presence of the Head of the Central Election Service, Dimitris Dimitriou, who explained that the bill will be "temporary" in the sense that it will apply only to the upcoming presidential elections.
According to what Mr. Dimitriou stated after the end of the session, the bill provides for the shortening of the last quarter before the elections regarding the issue of registration in the electoral rolls and consequently the statements for voting in the polling stations abroad. .
Thus, with the approval of the bill, the last date for registration in the electoral rolls or declaration for voting in the polling stations abroad is moved to December 18, 2017 instead of January 2, which would be based on what is usually valid according to the electoral legislation.
Mr. Dimitriou noted that the picture so far is not so encouraging - optimistic as, as he explained, the previous quarter that ended on October 2 compared to the corresponding quarter before the 2013 presidential election recorded a decrease of about 25%. "We hope that in the future, with the activation of the various party mechanisms and a campaign that, in cooperation with the GTP, we have in the works, we will persuade as many young people as possible to register to vote."
Asked to clarify in relation to the campaign, he said that the effort that will be made is through messages addressed mainly to young people, to convince young people of the need to register on the electoral rolls. He also explained that the campaign will cover all media, with an emphasis on social media that is more accessible to young people.
Answering other questions, the Head of the Central Election Service stated that the number of people aged 18-30 who are not registered to vote exceeds 40.000.
"Given what happened before the 2013 elections, when we had registered about 15.500 new voters and how exactly the last quarter ran, we expect that as then, the last fortnight will be activated," he said, explaining that the last week is the most critical.
Asked whether the Ministry of Interior is thinking of changing the legislation so that the registration of all those who turn 18 is automatically registered, Mr. Dimitriou reminded that a relevant bill had been promoted before the 2014 European elections, however there was Negative opinion of the Legal Service regarding the constitutionality of the bill, and added that in addition to the issue of constitutionality there are other issues that make this regulation not applicable in the near future such as issues related to the elements of citizens in the Population Archive (addresses of residence, six months regular residence in Cyprus, etc.).
Source: KYPE