The Cabinet approved a legislative amendment to the Population Registry Law today, granting maternal-line displaced persons the right to vote in Local Authority Elections based either on their place of residence or their place of displacement, matching rights already held by paternal-line displaced persons.
Interior Minister Konstantinos Ioannou said after the Cabinet session that the decision fulfills the President’s announcement to grant equal electoral rights to maternal-line displaced persons in Local Authority Elections, correcting the distortion that existed compared to paternal-line displaced persons and maintaining the memory of occupied communities and municipalities.
Under the new regulation, when both parents are displaced persons, registration will default to the father’s place of displacement.
However, voters who wish to register on the electoral roll based on their mother’s place of displacement can submit a one-time application to change their electoral register, Ioannou explained.
The new regulation will apply to the 2029 Local Authority Elections and forms part of the government’s broader policy to encourage active participation in electoral processes and decision-making, he said.
Asked whether the new regulation would also apply to Parliamentary Elections, Ioannou said the amendment would not extend to Parliamentary Elections.
In such a case, there would be a direct impact on the number of parliamentary seats per constituency that would not be representative of the electoral body, he explained.
According to the data, initial estimates suggest Limassol, Larnaca and Paphos would lose seats to the benefit of Famagusta and Kyrenia, the minister said.
Within 20 years, the vast majority of voters would be considered displaced persons, leading to major changes in the electoral map that would not reflect population data, he added.