Complaints submitted to the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection in connection with Sunday’s elections were lower than during the 2021 parliamentary elections, Commissioner Maria Christofidou said.
Christofidou said officials from her office carried out checks at 400 polling stations across Cyprus on election day, including for the first time in the Paphos district.
She said the statistical picture from Sunday’s election process would become clearer in the coming days.
“Yesterday, nationwide checks were carried out at 400 polling stations” by officials from her office, Christofidou said, adding that she was present during the checks conducted for the first time in the Paphos district.
She thanked the officials of her office for working consistently to ensure the smooth conduct of the checks and said “the general picture is positive, without any significant issues having arisen”.
Christofidou also thanked the Returning Officer, the Assistant Returning Officer and all officials of the Election Service “for the excellent cooperation and immediate response to the issues raised” by her office.
“Based on the data I have before me today, complaints are lower than in the previous parliamentary elections of 2021,” she said.
She said complaints had been submitted from February until now concerning phone calls, text messages, communication through Viber and two cases involving the public announcement of voters’ names and details.
Christofidou said the final number of complaints would be available in the coming days, when an announcement would be issued.
Referring to communication between political parties and citizens, the commissioner said more complaints had been received in the final 24 hours because it had not been clarified that her office examines complaints under personal data protection legislation. This means assessing whether there was a legal basis for processing personal data and consent for communication.
She said a key issue was whether voters had given consent for their inclusion in updated lists held by political parties.
Christofidou said the ban on all advertising in the final 48 hours before elections was a different matter and did not fall under her office’s assessment of personal data violations.
She said elections and the protection of personal data were closely linked to democracy, adding that respect for citizens’ privacy was not a procedural detail but a matter of trust.
Christofidou said that May 24, 2026, marked eight years since the General Data Protection Regulation began being applied by the Republic of Cyprus.