Order and security prevailed during yesterday's parliamentary elections.
The official briefings from the Cyprus Police, which undertook the security part throughout Cyprus, did not include any negative report or even anything to suggest that the situation got out of control.
About 2,000 members of the police force throughout Cyprus performed duties in the elections. In addition to staffing the 1,204 polling stations, the Police had the responsibility to patrol infrastructure related to yesterday's process.
"The members of the Police staff all the polling stations that operate, while at the same time, motorized patrols patrol polling stations, offices of political parties and other points with the aim of holding the parliamentary elections in conditions of normality, order and security", was one of the indicative reports of the Police spokesman, Byron Byron, on the nature of the Police's duties.
It should be noted that Mr. Byron was briefed by the crisis handling center at the facilities of the Motorized Direct Action Unit in Nicosia, which was put into operation early yesterday morning for the general coordination of the whole operation on a nationwide basis. Operations centers also operated in the other provinces.
However, policing during the elections cost the taxpayer an amount that is close to €850,000, based on the initial budget. This concerns overtime and vehicle handling costs.
As for the flat rates given to members of the Police, they ranged from €336.26 to €735.76, depending on their salary scale. Following a recommendation by the Chief of Police, Themistos Arnaoutis, to the Department of Public Administration and Personnel, the lump sums were set as follows:
>> Supervisory staff – €735.76.
>> Special constables of scale A2 – €336.26.
>> A3 scale probationary constables – €364.48.
>> Members of the Police A5 scale – €429.42.
>> Members of the Police A7 scale – €562.70
As we are informed, the flat-rate compensation for supervisory staff will be paid on the basis of the average hourly remuneration of scale A9(I). As far as the rest of the executives with a salary scale of A2, A3 and A5 are concerned, the flat-rate compensation will be paid based on the average hourly remuneration of the scale they travelled, while for the members of the Police who go through Scales A7, A7(II) and A8(I), the flat-rate compensation will be paid according to the average hourly pay of the A7 scale. As for senior officers with a salary scale of A12 and above, they will be compensated on the basis of the provisions of a decision of the Council of Ministers (17/05/2006), i.e., with an amount corresponding to 60% of the actual overtime compensation resulting from their salary scale.
The positions of the trade unionists
However, in view of yesterday's elections, we did not have strong trade union protests about the lump sum of police officers. Completely, we had a different picture in the 2024 election process, when the trade unions had reacted strongly, since some members would work for at least 16 consecutive hours (up to 20), while the amount was deemed too low. At that time, initially the Ministry had ended up paying a lump sum of €314 (€609 for supervisors), but after the reactions there was an agreement to pay an amount of €435 for those who completed 16 hours of work.
Now the situation looks different. Last March, the president of the Cyprus Police Association, Angelos Nicolaou, had expressed satisfaction with this agreement, commenting that the compensation will be paid based on improved recommendations that were agreed. Of course, the president of the Police Branch of the "EQUALITY" union, Nikos Loizides, sees injustice in the compensation of the members of the Police. In his statements, he told us that "the compensation that will be offered for ordinary police officers of the A8 scale will be reduced, based on the A7 scale". He also added that "the earnings are 'gross'" explaining that "the amounts will have a reduction of about 30%". He concluded by saying that "the security forces are not second-class workers".
