172,000 have not signed up to vote

A total of 561,000 individuals are registered to vote for the upcoming presidential elections, while 172,000 have not signed up.

Out of those who did not register, almost 72,000 belong to the 18-25 age group, chief returning officer Costas Constantinou told the Cyprus News Agency on Monday.

“The total number of Cypriot citizens over the age of 18 who are allowed to vote amount to 724,619. About 172,000 citizens have not registered.”

Some 24,000 showed no interest whatsoever in registering to vote. The numbers will be finalised on January 10 where any possible objections will have been processed, Constantinou added.

There will be a total of 1,150 voting centres set up for the 10,737 voters who opted to vote abroad. There will be 35 centres abroad in 25 cities, of which most are in Greece and the UK.

Additionally, 362 individuals live in areas where the number of registered voters did not reach 50 – the minimum required to set up a voting centre.

As such, all voters living abroad have until January 5 to confirm whether they wish to vote at a centre in their country of residence or opt to vote in Cyprus.

In Greece, there will be voting centres in Athens, Thessaloniki, Volos, Ioannina, Komotini, Larissa, Patra, Heraklion and Rethimno. In the UK, voters will be able to vote in Glasgow, Leeds, in two locations in London (the high commission and Cyprus community centre in north London), Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol.

Voting centres will also be set up in Berlin, Vienna, Brussels, Paris, Luxembourgh, Sofia, Stockholm, the Hague, New York and Dubai.

Some Cypriots living abroad may have difficulty registering if they did not register to vote while studying abroad and after graduating, began working abroad having a permanent residence in a foreign country.

For this reason, those aged between 18-25 could have a simplified registration process, allowing them to list their family home in Cyprus as their permanent address, Constantinou explained.

As for the presidential candidates themselves, so far 16 individuals have submitted their applications but only three have done so with all the necessary documents. The deadline is January 5, 12pm.