Concerted efforts particularly by political parties worried about growing voter apathy have paid off, with an increase in the number of new voters registering to vote for the May 26 European Parliament elections.
Figures released by Electoral Service show that by yesterday afternoon, 4951 new voters have registered – more than 1,000 more than the 3869 new voters that had registered in 2014. However, some 40,000 eligible voters aged between 18 and 30 have not registered.
Overall, 102,000 eligible voters are still not registered, of whom 85,000 are Greek Cypriots and 17,000 are Turkish Cypriots. But this list includes people born from 1911 and therefore requires revision.
There has been an increase also in the registration of other non-Cypriot EU voters, particularly Greeks. By yesterday 2,702 voters had registered compared to 1,617 in 2014.
In 2015, a total of 7,712 EU (non-Cypriot) voters had registered but this includes 1500 Britons who are not due to vote these European Parliament elections because of Brexit, although this is currently unclear.
There has also been an increase in the number of Turkish Cypriot voters who now total 80,000 compared to 77,000 in 2014.
As regards voting at election centres to operate in Greece, the UK and Belgium has also spiked. By yesterday, more than 6000 had expressed an interest to vote. In 2014, a total of 2014 had expressed an interest.
