Cypriot parliament re-elects Speaker

Cyprus News Agency, Nicosia
1 Jun 06

Nicosia, 1 June: General Secretary of the left-wing AKEL party
Dhimitrios Khristofias was re-elected this afternoon president of the
new 56-seat House of Representatives following the 21 May
parliamentary elections.

Khristofias was elected with a total of 35 votes, 18 votes by the AKEL
deputies, 11 by the deputies of the centre-right Democratic Party
(Diko), five votes by the deputies of the Social-democrats Movement
(EDEK) and one vote by the deputy of the Movement of Ecologists
-Environmentalists.

Nikos Anastasiadhis, president of the right-wing Democratic Rally
(Disi) was also a candidate for the presidency of the House and the 18
deputies of his party voted against Khristofias’s candidacy.

The third candidate was president of the European Party, Dhimitrios
Sillouris who was supported by the three deputies of his newly formed
party that entered the House for the first time.

The 56 members of the new House of Representatives as well as the
representatives of the three religious groups, (Armenians, Maronites
and Latins) were sworn in at the start of the plenary session of the
House, presided over by the eldest deputy, Kostas Papakostas of AKEL.