THE FINAL form of the February 17 presidential election ballot paper was yesterday agreed in a meeting between Elections Registrar Lazaros Savvides and spokesmen for the nine candidates.

Savvides said an agreement had been reached on the two points of dispute raised on Monday regarding in which order the candidates’ name and surname would be written, as well as the size of the candidates’ emblems.

It was decided that the name would be written first, followed by the surname.
“Yesterday [Monday], there were two issues: one was the name and surname and the other was the size of the emblems. There were small amendments, everyone was satisfied and therefore the ballot paper’s form is the final one,” Savvides told CyBC yesterday.

Former Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous’ request to include an emblem was more or less rejected, as he had failed to do so when registering his candidacy.

“There was a small question-mark posed by the spokesman for independent candidate Costas Themistocleous, which will be discussed with the Republic’s Attorney-general, but my position, based on advice by the AG, is that it [the ballot paper] is final and we will move ahead with printing the slips,” Savvides said.

He added: “The point put forward by Mr Themistocleous’ spokesman refers to whether after registering the candidacies it is allowed for a candidate to add an emblem when he hadn’t submitted during registration.

“Our position is that this is not possible because we will then be opening the door for other alterations, and that’s not allowed.”

A new meeting next Monday will determine which slips will be considered valid and which not, while the new ballot papers went to print yesterday afternoon.

Meanwhile, independent candidate Andreas Efstratiou has caused a stir by choosing the Guinness Book of World Records’ emblem, in honour of his recent record in achieving the longest wedding dress train in history.

Many candidates voiced their concerns during Monday’s meeting with Savvides over the emblem lowering the tone of the elections.

But Efstratiou presented assurances that he was indeed allowed to use the emblem, while the Elections Registrar surfed the internet himself to make sure that using the emblem would not create legal problems and found it was perfectly legitimate.