Filenews 9 September 2021
On September 16, a meeting of the Interior Committee is expected to take final decisions on whether or not to hold local government elections next December. This was decided at today's meeting of the Committee in which the Minister of Interior Nikos Nouris participated.
Mr. Nouris told the committee that according to the law, the closure of the electoral roll is set for October 2 and cannot be changed. If the House, he said, decides to hold elections, this should be announced at least a week in advance, so that new voters have the right to register on the electoral roll.
At the same time, Mr. Nouris noted that although the Ministry's proposal in the reform bills is to extend the term of office of the already elected local officials, he said that the Ministry is ready to proceed with the elections. However, as he said, these should be half-term, since the timetable that has been put before the European Commission for the implementation of the local government reform is May 2024. Otherwise, as he said, the reform will be cancelled and the disbursement of funds from the Recovery and Resilience Fund will be jeopardised.
He said the Ministry has no objection to the elections being held by May 2024 on the express condition that the reform bills in its entirety have been passed beforehand.
"We cannot accept in any way to lead people to the elections without passing the bills," he said, adding that candidates should know from the outset that they are elected by May 2024 and know that their municipality or community after that date will be part of another entity.
He added that if the decision is to hold elections in December they should be held on December 12, so that in case there is a by-election it will be on December 19.
The President of the Committee Aristos Damianou, suggested that MPs should return to their parties for consultation and that the Commission should come back in seven days, in a special session, to take final decisions on the matter, a proposal which was adopted.
