The interior ministry has no objections to legislative proposals put forward by MPs that provide for an increase in their number in addition to the introduction of horizontal voting.

Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou, in a letter to parliament on April 9, said there was no technocratic or practical issues with the proposals.

Edek president Marinos Sizopoulos has proposed that the number of MPs in the house increase from its current 56 to 66 by the creation of 10 extra seats that would be voted for on a country-wide basis. Current MPs are only voted for by constituents of the same district.

Seven of these would be Greek Cypriots and three Turkish Cypriots, however with the Cyprus problem remaining unsolved only the seven positions would be currently filled.

According to Politis, he also put the election service, part of the ministry, at the disposal of the House interior committee which is discussing the proposals.

The proposal to introduce horizontal voting for MPs, MEPs and municipal councillors was signed by five MPs from various parties.

According to the proposal, voters would receive two papers; one to vote for a party, a combination of parties or independents or a single candidate while the second would see horizontal voting of individual candidates.

Another proposal would abolish the rite of candidates or their representatives to attend polling stations to supervise voting although they would still be able to be present at the count.

The proposals would also allow independents to be included in the second distribution of votes, while now only parties are included.

In his letter, Ioannou said that only computerised counting would allow the complex suggestions of the proposals to be implemented, which is not yet possible.

Taking this into account, “we believe that the legislative proposals need a lot of study and improvements,” he said.

The minister added that while his ministry was not against horizontal voting it would be only possible of the deputy ministry of innovation came up with the necessary computerised system that would be used in polling stations.