The newly elected mayors of the island’s main cities, responding to their electoral victory, have pledged to do all they can for their home towns, saying they would work very hard to meet the challenges ahead and respond to the needs of their citizens.
“The negative course of our city can be reversed”, new Mayor of the capital Nicosia, Konstantinos Yiorkatzis said shortly after his electoral victory. Yiorkatzis garnered 57.11% of the vote.
Addressing his voters, Yiorkatzis thanked all citizens who supported his vision and his proposals. “I thank you for your decision to work together, in order to change Nicosia, making it a proud city,” Yiorkatzis noted. Moreover, he thanked the parties that supported his candidacy, DISY, DIKO and EVROKO.
Referring to the high rate of abstention, Yiorkatzis called on all voters who decided not to turn out to realize that things can change only through their participation in democratic election process.
The Mayor of the southern coastal town of Limassol, Andreas Christou, who was reelected for a second five-year term, said in his statement that he will continue with the work he has embarked on and added that congratulations for this victory belong to the citizens “who made their choice in a clear and unambiguous way”.
Our goal, he continued, is to turn Limassol into an exemplary city, which will serve its citizens and make way for new achievements in the future. Christou won with 57.71%, with 94.59% of the votes in his constituency counted.
Pafos Mayor Savvas Vergas, in statements from his campaign headquarters, thanked the citizens of his city for supporting his candidacy for re-election, noting that he will work to mitigate the negative impact of the financial crisis on the city.
He also noted that he will work for the city to win the bid of the European Capital of Culture of 2017 (Pafos is a candidate for the title, along with Nicosia and Limassol). Vergas received 49.10% of the vote.
The new Mayor of the Turkish-occupied town of Kyrenia Glafkos Kaliolou sent a message of return to the city, adding that the citizens of Kyrenia are not “second class citizens”. He thanked the voters for deciding to raise their voice over party rhetoric and conditions that “are not consistent with their desires and aspirations”.
The people of Kyrenia, he said, are determined to work hard, in order to return to their homes. Kariolou further noted that politicians should align their plans towards this direction. Finally, he thanked all voters for supporting his candidacy and called on everybody to work together to achieve this difficult objective. Kariolou got 52,78% of the vote.
In Larnaca, Andreas Louroudjiadis was elected mayor, with 55.41% of the vote. In his statement, the new mayor said that the message conveyed by the people of Larnaca is “a clear choice”, adding that people are for change towards a more extrovert, dynamic city which can assume a leading role.
Municipal elections take place every five years. This time there was a record number of European Union nationals who registered to vote in local elections. Nine municipalities continue to be under Turkish occupation.
(source: cna)
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