Mayor insinuates Kioneli’s population may be 60,000

Kioneli and Yerolakkos Mayor Huseyin Amcaoglu insinuated on Friday that there may be as many as 60,000 people living within his municipal borders.

Speaking to Kibris TV, Amcaoglu said there are almost 20,000 water metres registered with the municipality, and that “if you multiply this by three people living in each household, it equals 60,000.”

He added that there has been a “serious increase” in the area’s population since the north last performed a census in 2011 and criticised the north’s ‘government’ for not providing his municipality with adequate funds to carry out its responsibilities.”

“The budget is the basis of everything. If you do not have a balanced budget, you can only pay salaries and you cannot perform. The government is making some increases in contributions [to municipalities] according to its own means.”

“Is it enough? If you look at the work we are doing, it is inadequate,” he said.

To this end, he pointed out that official population projections put his municipality’s population at around 33,000, around half of his own insinuated estimation.