DISY won Cyprus’s 2026 parliamentary elections with 27.2% of the vote and 17 seats, but the defining stories of election night were ELAM’s surge to eight seats and EDEK’s historic exit from parliament after 57 years.
Six parties will sit in the new House of Representatives: DISY, AKEL, ELAM, DIKO, ALMA and Direct Democracy Cyprus. Every party that crossed the 3.6% threshold declared victory on Sunday night, though the margins of success varied sharply.
The winners
DISY secured 101,015 votes, down slightly from 99,328 in percentage terms at 27.2% compared with 27.77% in 2021, but the party actually attracted more raw votes than five years ago and held its 17 seats.
AKEL defied expectations, increasing its share by 1.4 percentage points to 23.9% and 88,776 votes, up from 79,913 in 2021. The gains did not translate into additional seats, however, with the party remaining on 15, the same total it held in the outgoing parliament.
The most significant numerical shift in the new parliament belongs to ELAM, which doubled its seats from four to eight on 10.9% and 40,566 votes, up sharply from 6.78% and 24,255 votes in 2021.
DIKO held on with 10% and 37,222 votes but lost one seat, dropping from nine to eight. The party recorded 11.29% and 40,395 votes in 2021.
ALMA, led by former Auditor General Odysseas Michaelidis, and Direct Democracy Cyprus, led by MEP Fidias Panayiotou, both entered parliament for the first time, with 5.8% and 21,699 votes and 5.4% and 20,160 votes respectively. Each party won four seats.
Historic defeat for EDEK and the Ecologists
The night’s clearest losers were the parties that fell below the 3.6% threshold. EDEK, the second-oldest party in Cyprus, founded in 1969, left parliament for the first time in its history. The party took just 3.3% and 12,098 votes, down from 6.72% and 24,022 in 2021. EDEK leader Nikos Anastasiou resigned shortly after the result was announced.
The Ecologists also suffered a historic defeat, failing to enter parliament for the first time since 2001. The party collapsed from 4.41% and 15,762 votes in 2021 to just 2% and 7,264 votes on Sunday.
DIPA fell from 6.10% and 21,832 votes in 2021 to 3.1% and 11,693 votes, while the Hunters’ Party again failed to cross the threshold, taking 3.2% and 11,890 votes, barely changed from 3.27% and 11,712 in 2021.
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