Cyprus Goes to the Polls

Voters go to the polls today to elect municipal representatives for the next four years.
Although mandatory, a lot of citizens are looking forward to exercising their voting right, with much anticipation about who will be elected mayor in the districts of Nicosia and Limassol.

Polls are due to close at 6pm and elected mayors and community leaders are expected to be announced by around 10pm, while he results of smaller municipalities will be known by around 8pm-8.30pm.

Elected municipal and community councillors will be announced after the final count of all voting slips, most likely during he early hours of tomorrow, reports said.

Today’s election procedure is of particular importance as it is he first time Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots and EU citizens will vote together.

Based on the final voting list he total number of registered voters is 505,172. The figure includes 3,728 EU voters as well as 309 Turkish Cypriots.

Refugee voters will vote twice, once from their original occupied municipality/community and once for the municipality/community where hey currently reside.

By law election campaigning was suspended at midnight on Friday. Until the final votes are in, public gatherings and organised speeches indirectly or directly associated with the elections is forbidden. People found in breech of the law face up to six years
imprisonment and/or CYP500 fine.