— Re-elects Christofias as House president
The 56 members of a younger new House of Representatives were sworn in Thursday and went on to re-elect communist AKEL party Secretary General Demetris Christofias to a second five-year term as the assembly’s president.
The session started with all the new deputies sworn in by the most senior MP, AKEL’s Costas Papacostas, aged 67.
In all, 20 new members have joined the parliament, two of whom were deputies in the past. The average age of the new House has been reduced from 53.2 years to 49.4 years.
The youngest deputy in the new House at the age of 33 year is Nicholas Papadopoulos, son of Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos. Present among the guests was First Lady Photyne Papadopoulou, while former First Lady Mimi Kyprianou, widow of the late president Spyros Kyprianou and mother of the European Commission’s Health Commissioner Marcos Kyprianou.
Christofias, elected in the refugee district of Kyrenia, was voted by 35 deputies of the ruling coalition that includes AKEL (18 seats), the centre-right Democratic Party DIKO (11), the social democrats EDEK (5) and the single-seat Ecologists Green party. The opposition’s 18 deputies and the three representatives of the new European Party (EvroKo) voted against.
His candidacy was proposed by Nicos Katsourides, director of the AKEL party newspaper Haravgi. It was supported by DIKO Deputy President Nicos Cleanthous, EDEK president Yiannakis Omirou and the Greens’ Yiorgos Perdikis.
The main challenger was the opposition Democratic Rally (DISY) leader Nicos Anastassiades, a deputy since 1981, proposed by Christos Pourgourides, while EvroKo’s Demetris Syllouris was also proposed by his party deputy, Nicos Koutsou.
The House President’s first duty will be to appoint two Secretaries and will preside over the Selection Committee with the party leaders next week to allocate MPs to the various House Committees.
Christofias has a challenging new term ahead of him as he has to continue with the reforms needed to modernise the House and make it more efficient, primarily by having its own independent budget and creating a legal services department, so as not to rely on the Republic’s Legal Services that is already overburdened with other work.
