56 new Cyprus MPs sworn in

Cyprus on Monday swore in its 56 new MPs following the parliamentary elections, in which ruling DISY and main opposition AKEL lost one seat each, while smaller parties gained seats.

The night belonged to the DIKO splinter group Democratic Front (DIPA), obtaining 6.1% of the vote and four seats, and the far-right ELAM walked away with a 3% increase in votes, reaching 6.78% from 2016.

ELAM doubled its seats from two to four, among the seven parties in parliament.

Ruling conservative party DISY held its ground, walking away with 27.7% of the vote and 17 seats (one less than 2016), despite a 2.9% drop.

AKEL pulled in 22.3% of the vote and 15 seats (one less than 2016), DIKO retains nine seats, Greens increased their seats from two to three, socialist EDEK from three to four, new party DIPA has four seats.

Communist AKEL did pull off a first; Nicosia’s Irene Charalambides received the most votes (14,008) out of all the MPs in the newly elected House.

Charalambides tweeted she was “beyond moved” and promised to continue serving the public.

It is the second time the MP was the public’s favourite; in 2016, she also received the most votes (16,847).

Charalambides made her name in parliament campaigning against corruption cases working closely with international bodies such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and EU’s anti-money laundering watchdog MONEYVAL.

Second, behind Charalambides was DISY parliamentary spokesperson Demetris Demetriou with 13,436 votes.

The new MPs are:

DISY 17 MPs (27.8%)

Nicosia: Averof Neophytou, Demetris Demetriou, Nicos Tornaritis, Harris Georgiades, Savia Orphanidou

Limassol: Efthymios Diplaros, Fotini Tsiridou, Nikos Sykas

Famagusta: Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis, George Karoullas, Onoufrios Koulla, Nikos Georgiou

Larnaca: Annita Demetriou, Prodromos Alambritis

Paphos: Charalampos Pazaros

Kyrenia: Marios Mavrides, Rita Theodorou Superman

AKEL 15 (22.3%)

Nicosia: Andros Kyprianou, Irene Charalambides, Stefanos Stefanou, Aristos Damianou, George Loukaides, Christos Christofides

Limassol: Costas Costa, Andreas Kafkalias, Marina Nicolaou