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Our View: Presidents acting outside the law will get no respect from citizens

general view of the presidential palace in nicosia
File photo: Presidential Palace

When a president messes up an appointment of a state official, as Nicos Anastasiades had done in the case of the president of the commission for the protection of competition, is it down to ineptitude or disregard for the law caused by the arrogance of power? One thing is clear – that the incumbent did not treat the institution of the presidency with the sense of responsibility it merited.

On Monday, the administrative court ruled that the reappointment of Loukia Christodoulou as president of the commission in 2018 was unlawful. This meant that any decisions taken and fines imposed by the commission from 2018 to 2023, when she eventually stepped down to take another highly-paid public post, could be legally challenged and overturned. No decisions made by the commission, the composition of which was in violation of the law, could stand.

According to the law, no person can be a member of the commission for longer than two terms, that is, 10 years. Christodoulou had been appointed in 2008 as a member of the commission and five years later was made commissioner, so by the time she was given another term in 2018, she had already served the 10 years stipulated by law. The court dismissed as ludicrous, the argument of the defence that she could have five years as member of the committee and 10 as its president.

The issue surfaced after the cattle breeders organisation questioned the legality of fines amounting to more than €1.5 million given the composition of the commission. It is not the first time fines imposed by the commission were nullified because of some omission by the executive. During the Christofias presidency large fines imposed on oil companies were nullified because the president of the commission did not have the qualifications stipulated by law.

This experience should have made any president doubly careful, but it appears for Anastasiades ensuring the highly rewarded post for his protégé and former employee of his law office for another five years was worth disregarding the law, which was very clear. “The term of the president and the other four members of the commission is five years and can be renewed only once…” it clearly states. What part of this could have been misunderstood by the president – a lawyer by profession – and his legal advisors, assuming they had been consulted?

Such is the power enjoyed by the president of republic, some in the position believe the law does not apply to them. Anastasiades seems to have subscribed to this during his presidency, making a mockery of institutions. What respect can the state command from citizens when its institutions are treated as a personal fiefdom by the president? We hope the current president does not follow the unhealthy example set by his predecessor, because it is our democracy that suffers.

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