A man lets a child cast his vote during the European Parliament election at a polling station in Nicosia, Cyprus May 26, 2019. — Reuters picNICOSIA, May 30 — Cyprus elects a new parliament today in a process likely to show a decline in support for major parties and a sizeable abstention rate among voters angered by corruption scandals.
Cyprus – divided among its Greek and Turkish Cypriot populations but whose government controls the Greek Cypriot side – has an executive system of government and the poll is a test run for allegiances which may be formed ahead of presidential elections scheduled in 2023. Opinion polls suggest smaller parties are likely to benefit from repeated scandals in recent years, eroding the dominance of Anastasiades’s party and the Communist AKEL, the other traditional mainstay of Cypriot politics.
The present administration has been under fire for championing a lucrative cash-for-passports scheme it had to abandon amid allegations of corruption in November 2020.