The political framework of Cyprus

Political Outline

Current Political Leaders: Chief of State and head of government: President Nikos Christodoulides (since 28 February 2023)
Next Election Dates: Presidential: 2028
Legislative: 2026 (2027 for the area administered by Turkish Cypriots)
Main Political Parties: The latest presidential elections have returned incumbent President Nicos Anastasiadis to power for another term.
Following the latest legislative elections, the composition of the Parliament is as follows:
- Democratic Rally (Disy): right-wing, absorbed the Liberals in 1998 (17 seats)
- Progressive Party of the Working People (Akel): left-wing, communist (15 seats)
- Democratic Party (Diko): centrist (9 seats)
- National Popular Front (Elam): far right, nationalist (3 seats)
- Movement of Social Democrats (Edek): centre-left, formerly known as Social Democratic Movement (Kisos) (3 seats)
- Democratic Alignment (DiPa: centre, liberal (4 seats)
- Ecologists Movement (KOSP): centre-left, green (2 seats)
- Volt Cyprus: Eurofederalist and progressive (1 seat)
Executive Power: The President is both the Chief of the State and the Head of the Government. The President is elected by popular vote for a five-year term and holds the executive powers. The Council of Ministers is appointed by the President. Under the 1960 Constitution, the position of Vice-President is reserved for a Turkish Cypriot. However, this position has remained vacant since 1973.
Legislative Power: The legislative power of the Republic of Cyprus is unicameral. The parliament consists of the House of Representatives, whose 80 members are directly elected by elected by proportional representation and preferential vote for five years. 24 seats are allocated to the Turkish Cypriot community but have been vacant since 1974 so the parliament is formed solely by the 56 Greek Cypriots.
The area administered by Turkish Cypriots has a separate unicameral Parliament (the Assembly of the Republic), formed by 50 members directly elected by a proportional representation system to serve a 5-year term.
Cypriots enjoy considerable political rights.

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

The world rankings, published annually, measures violations of press freedom worldwide. It reflects the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists, the media and digital citizens of each country and the means used by states to respect and uphold this freedom. Finally, a note and a position are assigned to each country. To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) prepared a questionnaire incorporating the main criteria (44 in total) to assess the situation of press freedom in a given country. This questionnaire was sent to partner organisations,150 RWB correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. It includes every kind of direct attacks against journalists and digital citizens (murders, imprisonment, assault, threats, etc.) or against the media (censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment etc.).

World Rank:: 26/180

Indicator of Political Freedom

Definition

Definition:

The Indicator of Political Freedom provides an annual evaluation of the state of freedom in a country as experienced by individuals. The survey measures freedom according to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights questions (on Electoral Process, Political Pluralism and Participation, Functioning of Government) and 15 civil liberties questions (on Freedom of Expression, Belief, Associational and Organizational Rights, Rule of Law, Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights). Scores are awarded to each of these questions on a scale of 0 to 4, where a score of 0 represents the smallest degree and 4 the greatest degree of rights or liberties present. The total score awarded to the political rights and civil liberties checklist determines the political rights and civil liberties rating. Each rating of 1 through 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of freedom, corresponds to a range of total scores.

Ranking:: Free
Political Freedom:: 1/7

Political freedom in the world (interactive map)
Source: Freedom in the World Report, Freedom House

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