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2016 Cypriot legislative election

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Cypriot legislative election, 2016
← 2011 22 May 2016
56 of 80 seats in the House of Representatives
  First party Second party
 
Leader Averof Neophytou Andros Kyprianou
Party DISY AKEL
Leader since 2013 2009
Last election 20 seats, 34.3% 19 seats, 32.7%
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Nikolas Papadopoulos Marinos Sizopoulos
Party DIKO EDEK
Leader since 2013 2015
Last election 9 seats, 15.8% 5 seats, 8.9%
  Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Demetris Syllouris George Perdikes
Party European Party Greens
Leader since 2006 2011
Last election 2 seats, 3.9% 1 seat, 2.2%

Parliamentary elections will be held in Cyprus on 22 May 2016 to elect 56 of the 80 Members of the House of Representatives.

Background

2011

The previous legislative election took place on 22 May 2011. President Demetris Christofias of the communist Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) had led a coalition consisting of his party as well as the centrist Democratic Party (DIKO) and the social-democratic Movement for Social Democracy (EDEK) since his election in 2008.

After three years in power, AKEL scored 32.7% in the 2011 legislative elections, narrowly behind the opposition center-right Democratic Rally, which polled 34.3% of votes. Meanwhile, AKEL's partners DIKO and EDEK scored 15.8% and 8.9% respectively. A mere two months after the legislative election, the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion took place, triggering calls for President Christofias' resignation.

2013

Amidst widespread dissatisfaction and a deepening economic crisis, Christofias announced that he would not run for a second term in the presidential election in 2013.[1] Ultimately, Nicos Anastasiades of DISY emerged victorious in the presidential election, taking 45.5% of the vote, against 26.9% for the AKEL-backed Stavros Malas and the EDEK-backed Giorgos Lillikas. In the second round, Anastasiades captured 57.5% to 42.5% for Malas. The Anastasiades administration took office on 28 February 2013, comprising DISY, DIKO and the European Party (EVROKO). The Democrats later pulled out of the coalition, however.[2]

2014

Roughly a year into the presidency of Nicos Anastasiades, the Cypriot parties faced the electorate in European Parliament elections. Ahead of the election, DISY and EVROKO announced that they would participate in the election on a joint ticket; the social democrats in EDEK and the Ecological and Environmental Movement (KOP) also formed an electoral pact for the event. With the economic problems the country faced under Demetris Christofias' AKEL-led government fresh in the minds of voters, the party plummeted to 27.0% of the vote, a loss of 8.4% points. Meanwhile, the DISY-EVROKO pact garnered 37.8%. This election also served as the first electoral test of the Citizens' Alliance (SYPOL) party of former presidential candidate Giorgos Lillikas, which polled 6.8% but failed to win seats in the European Parliament. The decline of AKEL and the rise of anti-establishment parties continued into 2015 and 2016.[3]

2016

Mere months before the 2016 legislative election, ex-DISY MEP Eleni Theocharous launched a splinter party, in opposition to Anastasiades' approach to the Cyprus issue.[4] She advocated for tighter co-operation with other Greek-Cypriot nationalist groups, particularly DIKO and EDEK. The new party was dubbed the Solidarity Movement. On 11 March 2016, it was announced that EVROKO would merge into the new party, placing its candidates on its lists in the upcoming elections.[5]

Electoral system

The 80 seats in the House of Representatives are elected from six multi-member constituencies, with the number of seats allocated according to the population of each area. Of the 80 seats, 56 are elected by Greek Cypriots and 24 by Turkish Cypriots. However, due to the partition of the island in 1974, the 24 Turkish Cypriot seats are unfilled and the House of Representatives has de facto had 56 seats since its enlargement in the 1980s.

The elections are held using open list proportional representation, with seats allocated using the Hare quota. Any remaining seats are allocated to lists that won at least one seat or parties that received at least 1.8% of the vote. In the open list system, voters first select the list they want to vote for, and then select a number of candidates equal to a quarter of the number of seats in the constituency. The first candidate on the list is not required to receive preferential votes to be elected. Voting is mandatory, and anyone who fails to vote can be fined or imprisoned.[6]

Parties and leaders

Party Ideology Leader
bgcolor="Template:Democratic Rally/meta/color" | Democratic Rally (DISY) Liberal conservatism, Christian democracy Averof Neophytou
bgcolor="Template:Progressive Party of Working People/meta/color" | Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) Communism, Marxism-Leninism Andros Kyprianou
bgcolor="Template:Democratic Party (Cyprus)/meta/color" | Democratic Party (DIKO) Greek-Cypriot nationalism, Centrism Nikolas Papadopoulos
bgcolor="Template:Movement for Social Democracy/meta/color" | Movement for Social Democracy (EDEK) Greek-Cypriot nationalism, Social democracy Marinos Sizopoulos
bgcolor="Template:Ecological and Environmental Movement/meta/color" | Ecological and Environmental Movement (KOP) Green politics, Social democracy George Perdikes
National Popular Front (ELAM) Ultra-nationalism, Greek nationalism Christos Christou
bgcolor="Template:Citizens' Alliance (Cyprus)/meta/color" | Citizens' Alliance (SYPOL) Populism, Social democracy Giorgos Lillikas
Solidarity Movement (KA) Greek-Cypriot nationalism Eleni Theocharous

Opinion polls

Polling for 2016 Cyprus election
Date Polling Firm DISY AKEL DIKO EDEK EVROKO KOP ELAM SYPOL KA Others Lead
14-20 Apr 2016 IMR 33.8 26.2 12.7 6.2 with KA 4.0 2.7 6.6 5.3 2.5 7.6
8-18 Apr 2016 IMR 35.1 25.4 13.4 6.7 with KA 4.5 2.2 6.0 4.5 2.2 9.7
11-16 Apr 2016 PMR & C 31.9 24.8 13.8 6.0 with KA 4.7 2.6 6.8 4.4 5.0 7.1
16 Apr 2016 Kathimerini 34.7 24.0 14.1 6.1 with KA 5.3 2.9 7.3 3.8 1.8 10.7
3 Apr 2016 IMR 37.0 27.8 11.1 5.6 with KA 3.7 1.9 7.4 3.7 1.8 9.2
14–19 Mar 2016 PMR & C 31.9 25.9 12.8 6.3 with KA 5.0 2.5 6.5 4.4 4.7 6.0
25 Feb–2 Mar 2016 IMR 33.1 25.5 10.0 5.5 1.7 4.1 2.8 6.4 6.6 4.3 7.6
15–19 Feb 2016 PMR & C 34.0 24.7 13.7 6.0 2.1 4.6 3.3 6.2 – 5.4 9.3
13–17 Jul 2015 GPO 33.1 30.8 12.5 7.2 1.5 3.0 1.8 7.8 – 2.3 2.3
22 May Election 2011 34.3 32.7 15.8 8.9 3.9 2.2 1.1 — — 1.1 1.6

References

  1. ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyprus-president-idUSBRE84D0VT20120514
  2. ^ http://famagusta-gazette.com/diko-decides-to-leave-cyprus-government-coalition-p22474-69.htm
  3. ^ http://paperroom.ipsa.org/papers/paper_11548.pdf
  4. ^ http://cyprus-mail.com/2016/01/15/theocharous-unveils-solidarity-platform-to-save-republic/
  5. ^ http://cyprus-mail.com/2016/03/11/evroko-to-merge-with-theocharous-solidarity-movement/
  6. ^ Electoral system IPU
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