Interior minister declares war on suspicious voters

Any cases involving voters registering themselves at new addresses or registering to vote for the first time at addresses deemed suspicious will be rooted out, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said on Wednesday.

The minister was asked about the complaints filed related to such activities after a meeting with local authorities’ organisations ahead of elections in June.

“In cases where, after the audit, it is proven that irregular registrations were carried out for the transfer of their electoral rights to other municipalities or communities, these will be found and dealt with appropriately,” Ioannou said. False registration is a criminal offence.

Earlier in the week, it emerged that more than 3,500 objections had been submitted regarding the registration of voters for this June’s local elections.

The objections pertained to voters registering themselves at new addresses or registering to vote for the first time at addresses deemed suspicious.

Suspicious, too, was the sheer number of people registering themselves at new addresses. This year, a total of 20,890 such requests had been made.

Multiple news outlets reported that some voters had registered themselves as living in warehouses, cafes, supermarkets, betting shops, bakeries, vacant plots and even in candidates’ houses.

Many of these registrations were submitted by representatives of political parties and candidates, according to the interior ministry.

Wednesday’s meeting was held as part of a new round of consultations on pending issues in view of the implementation of local-government reform due to come into effect on July 1. Topics under discussion include the transfer of staff and the issue of buildings when some municipalities merge with others.

Ioannou said the talks were “on a good path”.