A consensus is being formed between political parties and the government to lower the voting age to 17.On Thursday, the House Interior Affairs Committee discussed a legislative proposal to lower the voting age from eighteen to seventeen, which has been tabled by DISY MP Averof Neophytou.Neophytou said that the bill is a political issue, adding that Cyprus should follow other European countries in allowing young people to vote from the age of 17. “It seems that the government agrees with the proposal, it is technically correct, and we can proceed,” he remarked.Menelaos Vasileiou, the Head of the Election Service on behalf of the Ministry of Interior, mentioned that the main issue at this stage was the short time between the proposal’s submission and the upcoming elections in June. Regarding how many people this would affect, Vasileiou stated that the new limit would give an additional 8,680 Greek Cypriots and 78 Turkish Cypriots with a declared address in the free areas the right to vote in the parliamentary elections, as well as 746 Turkish Cypriots for the European elections.In response, Committee chair and left-wing AKEL MP Aristos Damianou noted that if the new age limit is approved, it would apply from May 2026.Damianou stressed that there is indeed a broader pan-European trend to lower the age limit for voting rights. He added that there was a discussion on the principle and that he is in consultation with the chair of the House Legal Affairs Committee, as such a provision requires a constitutional amendment.He added that if the proposal is approved in the coming weeks or months, it would apply for the first time in the parliamentary elections of May 2026. “It is an ongoing process, and we will see how the parties and the executive branch will move, though a broad consensus seems to be forming in favour of passing the bill,” he said.During the discussion, the committee members mentioned the need to definitively clarify the executive’s position regarding other modernising provisions, such as automatic registration in electoral rolls and another proposal concerning postal voting. “We need to look at these issues as a whole because we cannot be voting on electoral laws piecemeal, especially when they concern modernisation and facilitating the exercise of electoral rights,” DISY MP Nikos Sykas stated.
