Cyprus police reported no major incidents during Sunday’s parliamentary elections, with official updates pointing to an orderly process across the country.
About 2,000 members of the force were on duty nationwide, covering 1,204 polling stations and patrolling other sites linked to the election, including party offices and related infrastructure.
Police spokesman Vyron Vyronos said officers were staffing all polling stations, while motorised patrols were monitoring polling centres, political party offices and other locations to ensure the elections were held in conditions of normality, order and security.
Vyronos gave the update from the crisis management centre at the Emergency Response Unit premises in Nicosia, which began operating early on Sunday to coordinate the police operation nationwide. Operations centres were also set up in other districts.
The police presence for the elections is expected to cost taxpayers close to €850,000, according to the initial budget. The amount covers overtime and vehicle movement expenses.
Police officers received flat-rate payments ranging from €336.26 to €735.76, depending on their pay scale. Following a proposal by Police Chief Themistos Arnaoutis to the Public Administration and Personnel Department, the payments were set at €735.76 for supervisory staff, €336.26 for special constables on scale A2, €364.48 for trainee constables on scale A3, €429.42 for police members on scale A5 and €562.70 for police members on scale A7.
The flat-rate compensation for supervisory staff will be paid on the basis of the average hourly pay of scale A9(I). For staff on scales A2, A3 and A5, compensation will be based on the average hourly pay of the scale they are on, while for officers on scales A7, A7(II) and A8(I), it will be paid according to the average hourly pay of scale A7.
Senior officers on pay scale A12 and above will be compensated under the provisions of a Council of Ministers decision dated May 17, 2006, with an amount corresponding to 60% of the actual overtime compensation arising from their pay scale.
Ahead of Sunday’s elections, police unions did not stage the kind of strong protests seen during the 2024 election process for European Parliament and local government representatives, when they objected to flat-rate payments for officers expected to work at least 16 consecutive hours and, in some cases, up to 20.
At the time, the ministry had initially decided on a flat-rate payment of €314, or €609 for supervisors. After union reactions, an agreement was reached for €435 to be paid to those completing 16 hours of work.
The situation now appears different. In March, Cyprus Police Association president Angelos Nikolaou expressed satisfaction with the current agreement, saying compensation would be paid on the basis of improved proposals that had been agreed.
However, Nicos Loizides, president of the police branch of the Isotita union, said he saw unfairness in the compensation for police members. He said the payment for ordinary officers on scale A8 would be reduced because it would be calculated based on scale A7.
Loizides also said the amounts were gross payments and would be reduced by about 30%. He added that members of the security forces were not second-class workers.