Lacklustre turnout scuppers Greens leadership vote

For the second time in two months the Greens have had to postpone electing a new leadership after an insufficient number of members showed up to render the proceedings valid.

The party’s electoral congress, convened over the weekend, had to be called off because the delegates present did not form a quorum.

Under the Greens’ charter, a quorum is established when 50 per cent of members are present at the start of proceedings, and 33 per cent are in attendance after half an hour has passed.

Delegates in attendance had tried to delay acting party leader Charalampos Theopemptou from speaking, in a bid to gain time in the hopes that 17 more delegates might eventually turn up to establish a quorum.

But after two hours of waiting it became clear that was not happening, and Theopemptou gave up and terminated the proceedings.

In comments to the media, a somewhat embarrassed Theopemptou said the holding of the congress would be announced at a future date. He added that better preparation would be made in terms of informing members of the particulars.

Held at the municipal theatre in Latsia, the congress was to elect the party chairman, deputy chairman and members of the central committee. The event’s slogan was “Going green – going forward.”

The electoral congress had first been cancelled back in October when a few days before its scheduled date, a party member who had been disbarred for violating party rules, sought and obtained a court injunction that postponed the holding of a congress for 60 days.

The ejected party member, Sotiris Christou, had intended to run for party chairman in those elections. He applied to Nicosia district court, convincing the court that, until his case were tried, no elections should take place so that he did not lose the right to stand as a candidate.

Christou, subsequently reinstated, was among three persons running for the party’s top office over the weekend. Theopemptou is also vying for party chairman.

The Greens’ leadership selection is seen as a test on whether the party can make a break from the legacy of George Perdikis, who led and dominated the Greens for 20 years. Perdikis stepped down in 2020.

In the May 2021 legislative elections the Greens – formally known as the ‘ Movement of Ecologists – Citizens’ Cooperation’ – garnered 15,762 votes or 4.41 per cent. That earned them three seats in parliament – plus one compared to the previous elections of 2016.

The party defines its ideology as ‘Green politics and social democracy’.