Indicator history

The Law on the Exercise of the Right to Vote and be Elected at Municipal and Local Elections by Nationals of Other Member States Residing in the Republic N. 98(I)2004, which purports to transpose (i) Council Directive 94/80/EC of 19 December 1994 laying down detailed arrangements for the exercise of the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in municipal elections by citizens of the Union residing in a Member State of which they are not nationals; (ii) Council Directive 96/30/EC of 13 May 1996 amending Directive 94/80/EC laying down detailed arrangements for the exercise of the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in municipal elections by citizens of the Union residing in a Member State of which they are not nationals; and (iii) article 19(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, provides for the right of EU nationals with their ordinary residence in Cyprus to vote and stand as candidates at municipal and local elections.

Third Country Nationals do not have the right to vote at any level. On 30.11.2009 the equality body issued a report (Ref. Α.Κ.R. 197/2008) intending to intervene with the Cypriot government in order to encourage the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at Local Level. The report came in response to a complaint received by the equality body in 2008 from a Canadian national permanently residing in Cyprus against the Cypriot authorities for depriving him of the right to participate in the forthcoming elections for regional self governance in violation of European and international law. The complaint gave the opportunity to the equality body to raise for the second time the question of the participation of third country nationals in local elections, the first time being in 2005, whereupon the equality body found that although the Cypriot government had signed the Council of Europe Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at Local Level in 1996, by 2005 it still had not ratified it. The report states that there are municipalities where the majority of the residents are migrants and that their exclusion from decision making bodies that affect their everyday lives is not conducive to their developing a sense of belonging to the community.