Bağımsızlık Yolu demands legal rights for Maronite headmen elections

The political group Bağımsızlık Yolu is calling for the legal protection of the right of Cypriot Maronites to elect their own village headmen and council members. Although this practice has been in place since 2005, the group argues that it lacks a formal legal basis and remains subject to the administrative discretion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Bağımsızlık Yolu claims that the Ministry currently holds the power to decide who can run for office and whether elections will even take place, often without providing written justifications. The group cited the 2022 local elections as an example, noting that Maria Skoullou’s candidacy was blocked on verbal ‘security grounds’ without a court order or formal investigation, while other candidates from the same community faced no such obstacles.

The group criticized major political parties, including the CTP and UBP, for failing to codify these rights into law over the past two decades. They argued that the CTP, which initiated the practice in 2005, failed to establish a legal foundation, and that subsequent administrations have treated the right as a discretionary ‘permission’ rather than a guaranteed legal entitlement.