Parliament is set to begin reviewing 60 pieces of legislation that could fundamentally reshape the country’s electoral system before the 2026 parliamentary elections.
The House Interior Committee will start discussions next Thursday to examine 13 government bills and 47 legislative proposals, committee chair Aristos Damianou told Phileleftheros.
The proposed changes could add 92,000 new voters through automatic registration and lowering the voting age to 17.
Key proposals include introducing postal voting, allowing maternal-line refugees to vote in their ancestral constituencies, and establishing nationwide parliamentary seats beyond district representatives.
“We have set an inclusive process that should involve the largest possible number of MPs and invited guests, given the wide range of issues covered by these bills,” Damianou said, adding that the committee aims to complete discussions by May.
The reforms could shift Nicosia’s parliamentary representation, reducing its seats from 20 to 19 while Paphos gains one seat, rising to five. Further changes could occur if maternal-line refugees, numbering around 45,000, receive voting rights in their ancestral districts.
The package includes proposals for horizontal voting and term limits for MPs, though research indicates such measures are rare in other countries. Luxembourg is the only country applying horizontal voting in parliamentary elections, while nationwide seats exist only in Greece and Lithuania.
The committee aims to finalise the framework a year before the 2026 elections to avoid last-minute changes to electoral rules, Damianou said.
The reform package includes President Christodoulides’s priorities of lowering the voting age to 17 and implementing automatic voter registration, potentially adding 6,900 young voters and 85,000 previously unregistered eligible voters.
The final electoral register update before the 2026 parliamentary elections is scheduled for April 2, 2026.
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