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In the plenary session of the House of Representatives next Thursday, 3 March, the three bills on local government reform will be referred for discussion, as decided by the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs during its closed session on Thursday, as there remain issues of disagreement between the parties, mainly concerning the number of municipalities that will result from the mergers and the issue of whether or not to hold referendums and the type of referendum (pancyprian, provincial, by municipality).
According to information, the plenary session will start in the morning, with speeches by leaders or representatives of the parliamentary parties on the three bills, which will then be put to the vote.
The start of the plenary session and procedural issues, including the time for each party to speak, will be decided at a meeting of the leaders of the parliamentary parties.
It was also decided at the meeting of the Committee on Internal Affairs to submit the parties' amendments to the bills by next Tuesday, 1 March, i.e. 48 hours before the start of the plenary session, in order to give the parties time to study them.
In statements after the session, DISY MP Nikos Sykas said that a partial analysis of the bills was done and "some details that needed to be seen and corrected have been done," adding that "the most important of all is that having before us three complete bills that are the quintessence of local self-government, we will go to the plenary session with the relevant amendments that touch on referendums."
"For us, our position is clear that any attempt at referendums endangers or dulls local government," he added.
"We are against referendums and have tabled the amendment for 17 municipalities," he added.
He said that DISY's position on the issue of the number of municipalities "was clear right from the beginning is 17 or less municipalities."
He also said that "today we settled the issue of occupied demoi, where the term limit is abolished bearing in mind the peculiar circumstances and the struggles waged by communities and community leaders."
He also referred to an amendment whereby "those who have exhausted three terms and more will be eligible to seek another term, up to 2029."
Sycas said that DISY clearly says that the reform of the TA which "touches on the Recovery and Resilience Fund is a social and urgent need" and added that he believes "in both the consensual acts and the goodwill of all parties" so that "next Thursday we will finally be able to register our Cyprus and the legislature another reform following the reforms that have been voted last week in the Plenary".
Democratic Party MP Marinos Mousiuttas said that the debate on the bills which will be put "for final consideration" in the plenary session of the House of Representatives next Thursday has been completed.
He said that the DIPA reiterated its positions "mainly on the two thorny issues (number of municipalities and referendums), which are the alpha and omega of the reform."
With regard to referendums, Mr. Mousiuttas said that the PPP is against holding referendums "because as was evident from today's debate any form of referendums either locally or regionally will leave bad residues and as a result the reform cannot be implemented."
The PPP MP appealed "to the rest of the political forces to reconsider by next Thursday so that the reform can be passed and implemented."
With regard to the number of municipalities, Mr. Mousiuttas said that he DPA's position is 14 demoi and appealed to the political forces "to leave the party flags, leave the red, yellow, green and blue demoi and come closer to fewer demoi and better local government."
"There is a note of optimism that in the end there will be far fewer municipalities than 20 or than 17,"
Source: CNA
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