Children of displaced mothers to gain voting rights in local elections from 2029

Children of mothers who are registered as displaced persons will be allowed to vote for the local representatives-in-exile of the places where their mothers are registered at the next local elections in 2029, President Nikos Christodoulides announced on Friday.

“As is currently the case for those displaced by patrilineal descent, today we give the same right to those displaced by matrilineal descent,” he said ahead of the day’s cabinet meeting.

The proposal was submitted to cabinet by Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou, and, if passed into law, will come into force in 2028, in time for the 2029 elections, bringing children of mothers who are displaced persons into line with children of fathers who are displaced persons on this front.

All descendants of displaced persons, therefore, will be able to vote in their place of residence and the place from which their parents are registered as displaced. In cases in which both of a voter’s parents are registered displaced, they will initially be registered in their father’s locality, but have the right to apply choose that of their mother.

However, the bill stops short of extending that right to parliamentary elections, where children of displaced fathers can already vote for MPs-in-exile, with concerns regarding electoral balances having been expressed regarding such an eventuality.

Newspaper Politis on Friday quoted the interior ministry as warning that allowing the children of mothers who are displaced persons to vote for MPs-in-exile could have “unforeseen consequences” on the distribution of parliamentary seats to each district.

The bill also foresees the creation of a digital platform which will allow voters to check their registration status and voting rights after the introduction of automatic electoral registration on July 1 next year.

After it receives cabinet’s approval, it will be submitted to parliament.

A separate bill before the House internal affairs committee, which would grant children of mothers who are displaced persons the right to vote in all elections based on displacement, has been frozen since February of last year.

Committee members decided by majority “not to promote any change” ahead of the next parliamentary elections.

Concerns over extending voting rights for children of displaced mothers to parliamentary elections were set out in February last year during a House interior committee session, where interior ministry representative Menelaos Vasiliou warned that such a move would have a “direct impact” on seat allocation.

He cautioned MPs that Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos would each lose one parliamentary seat, while Famagusta would gain two and Kyrenia one, with disparities widening over time.

If registration based on displacement became mandatory and applied across generations, Vasiliou said that “in 20 years, the vast majority of voters, if not all of them, will be considered to be displaced,” adding that “the distribution of seats will not be representative of the electorate”.

The bill discussed at the time was tabled by Disy MP Rita Theodorou Superman, who said its aim was to “eliminate discrimination and injustice” by allowing children of displaced mothers to vote and stand for election in their mother’s district.

Under the current law, the children of displaced fathers are considered to have “permanent residence” in their father’s district and, as such, are considered to be from the same place as their fathers for electoral purposes.

At the next parliamentary election, which is to be held in May, 19 will belong to MPs from the Nicosia district, 12 to MPs from the Limassol district, 11 to MPs from the Famagusta district, six to MPs from the Larnaca district, five to MPs from the Paphos district, and three to MPs from the Kyrenia district.