It’s bad enough that Cyprus has a deficit of politicians, many of whom do not have the maturity or intelligence that goes with the job, now we have political parties wrangling over who, in their wise opinion, is best suited to run the municipalities.
Since when do political parties decide how to run the local administration? Do they have expert knowledge of operating municipalities that ordinary folk do not have?
Will AKEL improve the rubbish collection? Will DISY build more pavements and parking lots? Will DIKO solve the stench of the sewage problems in many areas? Or, will EDEK put an end to illogical town planning laws (and their violation by a privileged few) that cause more hardship than harmony in neighbourhoods.
Political parties had better think twice before proposing candidates for the December 17 municipal elections purely on the merit of party standing and loyalty to the leadership.
What the island’s main and smaller towns need are good managers who can get the job done and keep the towns clean, good administrators who can improve efficiencies in the town halls and mayors with good manners.
Silly comments and racist remarks make the mayors look dumb, and this bad image often reflects on that town’s citizens. Few mayors (or any of their municipal councilors) have actually made any brainworthy statements or policy declarations in recent times and even fewer have gained the support of local groups, be they shopkeepers, businesspeople, rights groups and citizens’ activists.
Town halls and their elected officers are responsible with introducing policy or overseeing the work of the municipal workers. They are also responsible for the image a town gives out that depends on whether projects are a genuine attraction or simply overambitious and garish.
In many cases each municipality — often larger and more expensive than what the local taxes can afford — is run on a feudal system where the mayor is the local lord, the party-chosen councilors comprise the lord’s court and anybody with any services or wares to sell tries to get on the good side of any of the aforementioned.
These feudal lords do not cooperate with, let alone talk to their neighbouring lords, which is why we have separate rubbish collection services for each town, often battling along town borders over who gets to pick up the garbage on that street. As a result, nobody does the job and the garbage is piled up.
The only hope of progress came from the recent cooperation of the sewerage boards of Nicosia, Limasol and Larnaca who have decided to appoint a joint consultant to tell them what to do, how to do it and be efficient while doing it.
So, citizens should follow the ridiculous political bickering over the next few days and then decide whether any of these party-appointees or independent candidates are worthy, regardless of which political movement they support.
