Elam, former auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides’ Alma, and social media influencer Fidias Panayiotou’s Direct Democracy party look set to be the big winners at May’s parliamentary election, according to a poll published by Stratego-IMR on Sunday.
The poll was published in Sunday’s edition of newspaper Kathimerini, with 800 people asked for which party they intend to vote in May.
The big two parties, Disy and Akel, remain the most popular choices, though their figures of 20.4 per cent and 19.3 per cent respectively constitute marked decreases in support compared to the 27.8 per cent and 22.3 per cent of the vote which the two parties won at the last parliamentary election in 2021.
In third place, Elam sit not two far behind those two parties, and look set to more than double their share of the vote, sitting on 14.2 per cent in Sunday’s poll, up from 6.8 per cent in their fourth-placed finish at the last parliamentary election.
Alma, created by Michaelides in May, now sits in fourth place, on 8.7 per cent, while Direct Democracy, created by Panayiotou in October, is less than a percentage point behind on exactly eight per cent, in fifth place.
Diko, having finished in third place in every parliamentary election since it came second in 1985, and having never polled outside the top three since its founding in 1976, sits in a lowly sixth place according to Sunday’s poll, with exactly seven per cent of the vote.
The 2021 election, in which the party won 11.3 per cent of the vote, had been its worst ever showing at a parliamentary election.
Despite the drastic drop in support for the party, Diko remains the most well-supported of any of the parties which support the government, with Edek polling at just 1.8 per cent – a result which would also be the worst result in the party’s 56-year history – and Dipa polling at just 1.1 per cent after having won 6.1 per cent of the vote at its first parliamentary election last time out.
Of the rest, Volt Cyprus, founded in 2021, sits on 2.1 per cent of the vote, while the Green Party, sits on exactly two per cent, and the hunters’ movement sits on 1.2 per cent.
The next parliamentary election will take place on May 24 next year, with a total of 56 seats up for election, including that of Dipa’s George Penintaex, who is to take his seat in parliament for the first time this week after Marinos Mousiouttas vacated his seat to become labour minister.
Of those 56 seats, 19 will belong to MPs from the Nicosia district, 12 to MPs from the Limassol district, 11 to MPs from the Famagusta district, six to MPs from the Larnaca district, five to MPs from the Paphos district, and three to MPs from the Kyrenia district.
The Paphos district gained an extra seat ahead of May’s election due to the growth in its voting population, with that gain coming at the Nicosia district’s expense.
The Republic of Cyprus’ constitution initially foresaw a parliament with 50 voting members, of whom 35 would be Greek Cypriots and 15 would be Turkish Cypriots, as well as non-voting observers belonging to the Armenian, Latin, and Maronite communities.
Following the breakdown of constitutional order and the outbreak of intercommunal violence in 1963, the Turkish Cypriots were unable to return to their seats in parliament, leaving just 35 voting members.
That figure was raised to 56 Greek Cypriots ahead of the 1985 parliamentary elections after the constitution was altered using the doctrine of necessity. The amendment foresees 24 Turkish Cypriots also being elected, but with the Cyprus problem remaining unsolved, this has not yet happened.
