Dipa member Marinos Mousiouttas called on Wednesday for the House legal affairs committee to limit MPs duty to three consecutive terms.

Mousiouttas wants to set a maximum term limit for elected MPs, excluding leaders. There is no term limit at present. A similar proposal had been brought up through government bill by the Anastasiades government in 2013 but was dismissed in 2018.

“At that time the parliament had rejected this proposal,” Mousiouttas said, noting that the proposal examined today was a continuation of those in the past.

He added some of the past proposals included the institutionalisation of terms of office for mayors, community leaders and community counselors.

“The aim of these proposals is to strengthen the credibility of the parliament and politicians in the eyes of the public, which often expresses a lack of trust in them,” Mousiouttas stated.

Finally, he added that the positions of other parties were expected soon, noting that a final approval or rejection was expected by May this year.

Akel MP Aristos Damianou said his party agreed with introducing term limits.

He concluded that he believes the discussion will revolve around the definition of the term limit, saying that they should be cumulative, rather than consecutive.

“If someone has completed their term limits, it should not matter whether they interrupted or not. Three terms should be considered sufficient.”