Independent MP Andreas Themistocleous on Sunday caused a fracas when he went to vote in his Limassol constituency as he refused to submit one of his ballot papers.

Themistocleous received the stream of papers just like the rest of the public, but when he emerged from the voting booth, he would not submit his MEP election ballot.

“I don’t vote for the European elections,” he charged, before he submitted the rest of the paperwork and stormed off.

Staffers tried to reason with him and tell him he could simply submit it empty or void, to no avail.

As such, the returning officer has been requested to opine on the matter.

In a post on Facebook, he said “the right to vote or not vote is holy

“When different elections were held on different dates, all citizens had the right to abstain. Now because these different elections are held on the same day some ‘intellectuals’ have decided that if a citizen will participate in one election then they will have to participate in all of them.

“This could only happen in ‘sub-Saharan banana states’.”