Newly elected Maronite Cypriot non-voting representative in parliament Petros Nacouzi said that it is both a “great honour” and a “great responsibility” to represent the island’s Maronite community in the House.

“My election as Maronite representative in parliament is a great honour, but also a great responsibility. The strength you gave me becomes a commitment to hard work, to unity, and to the continuous fight for our community and for every person who believes in a better tomorrow,” he said.

He offered a thank you “from the bottom of my heart” to all those who voted for him, and added, “your support was my greatest strength”.

“We continue together, with respect, consistency, and a vision,” he said.

He won 51 per cent of the vote on Sunday, beating his only opponent Marios Mavrides, who had served as a voting MP for Disy between 2011 and April. Prior to entering politics, he had been an accountant, and co-founded accountancy firm Forvis Mazars in 2007.

In being elected, he replaces Yiannakis Moussas, who had served in the role between 2016 and last month.

Moussas had earlier this month during a meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides said that in recent years, “a lot of things happened, and a lot of things happened in a short period of time” to improve conditions for the Maronite Cypriot community.

Those achievements, he added, included that “the infrastructure in our villages … has improved”, as well as a “drastic increase” in the number of Maronite Cypriots moving to traditionally Maronite villages in the north thanks to increased subsidies and incentives offered to them by the government.

“You know very well that without our villages, we have no hope of surviving,” he said.

He will sit alongside the non-voting representatives of the Armenian Cypriot and Latin Cypriot communities, Vartkes Mahdessian and Antonella Mantovani, who were both elected unopposed earlier this month.