Elam takes three House committees, including defence

By Tom Cleaver

Elam has taken the chairmanship of three of the 16 parliamentary standing committees, including the House defence committee, with the committees’ chairmanships having been allocated on Friday.

Alongside defence, the party will now have the right to choose the chairman of the transport and environment committees, with the parties which held the rights to all three of those committees having lost all their seats in parliament at last month’s election.

Previously, the defence committee had been chaired by Edek, the transport committee by Dipa, and the environment committee by the Ecologists’ Movement.

Disy and Akel took the chairmanship of five committees each, with Disy retaining control of the foreign affairs, energy, legal, health and institutions committees, which it also held throughout the course of the last parliament.

Akel, meanwhile, retains control of the five committees it chaired during the last parliament: the interior, agriculture, labour, human rights, and refugee committees.

Likewise, Diko will chair the finance, education and audit committees, as it did throughout the course of the last parliament.

Elam’s newfound prominence was met with distaste from both Disy and Akel, with Disy MP Demetris Demetriou saying that “it does not fully satisfy us”.

He said that a consensus could not be reached among parliamentary parties regarding how the committees’ chairmanships would be divided up, and that it was for this reason that his own party, Akel, and Diko all retained their committees and that the three committees which once belonged to parties now with no seats went to Elam.

“We as Disy have an issue with the fact that the defence committee ended up in Elam’s hands. We tried through a process to prevent it, but it was not possible,” he said.

He went on to say that there are two schools of thought in Europe regarding how Elam and equivalent parties should be dealt with once they attain significant representation in legislatures.

“Either we would accept the election result and they would get what was due to them or they would be out of the process. There is no right or wrong school of thought. Some countries decided to deal with these parties through exclusion, others through participation,” he said.

He added that “we had decided that they should get that to which they are entitled, right or wrong”.

Akel MP Yiorgos Loukaides also lamented that a consensus could not be reached regarding the allocation of committee chairmanships.

“Unfortunately, for the first time, we have not been able to reach consensus solutions on the distribution of committee chairmanships, through no fault of Akel. On the contrary, we had the will and determination, without demanding anything more than what we had in the previous period,” he said.

However, he added, “we were unfortunately faced with a scenario which was set in advance and led by House President Annita Demetriou”.

“It is sad, it is tragic, if not hilarious, because we saw the continuation of what we experienced with the House presidency [election]. Demetriou is ready to give everything, not only to Diko, but also to Elam,” he said.

He added that the allocation of committee chairmanships took place “on the basis of the same expediencies and in the same way that we saw this absurd theatre be played out for the presidency of the parliament”.

“They have given the defence committee to Elam, as it wanted, as it demanded, as it vetoed. Every veto Elam exercised in the select committee was immediately accepted by Demetriou, and it is possible that we will now see [Elam leader] Christos Christou as chairman of the defence committee,” he said.

“Think about it for a moment, and let’s think together about the damage to Cyprus and the potential for such a position to be exploited by the Turkish side.”

On the other hand, Elam MP Linos Panayiannis was satisfied with the outcome

“We will roll up our sleeves, we are ready to take on this burden,” he said, before adding that “we are ready to be judged and to fight as many battles as necessary”.

Diko MP Panicos Leonidou, too, expressed contentment how proceedings had turned out, with his party securing three committees of its own. Additionally, unlike Demetriou and Loukaides, he was not displeased that Elam had gained control of three committees.

“As for the unallocated committees, we said that they should be given to Elam. We ended up with this, despite attempts for other deals. The election result gave us a message that no one got an absolute majority to do whatever they want and whatever they think, but it gave us a mandate for cooperation and understanding,” he said.