2026 Cypriot legislative election

Legislative elections were held in the Republic of Cyprus on 24 May 2026 to choose 56 members of the House of Representatives. The constitutional House has 80 seats; the 24 allocated to the Turkish Cypriot community have been vacant since 1964, and the 56 Greek Cypriot seats are filled from six multi-member districts by open-list proportional representation, with 3.6 percent of the valid vote the practical threshold for winning a seat. Of 569,182 registered voters, 380,851 cast ballots, a turnout of 66.91 percent; the Interior Ministry’s polling-station file records 372,060 valid ballots, 6,621 invalid ballots and 2,170 blank ballots.

The Democratic Rally (DISY) remained the largest party, with 101,013 votes (27.15 percent) and 17 seats, the same number it held after the 2021 election. The Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) was second, with 88,777 votes (23.86 percent) and 15 seats, also unchanged. ELAM, the National Popular Front, placed third with 40,567 votes (10.90 percent) and doubled its representation from four seats to eight. The Democratic Party (DIKO) won 37,222 votes (10.00 percent) and eight seats, one fewer than in 2021.

Two lists entered the House for the first time, and only six parties won seats, against seven five years earlier. ALMA – Citizens for Cyprus, founded by former auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides after his removal from that office, received 21,700 votes (5.83 percent) and four seats. Direct Democracy Cyprus, founded by the member of the European Parliament Fidias Panayiotou, received 20,159 votes (5.42 percent) and four seats. The EDEK Socialist Party, Democratic Alignment and the Ecologists, all present in the previous House, fell short of the threshold. Lists that won no seat together took 16.83 percent of valid votes.

Cyprus is a presidential republic, so the election did not choose the government of President Nikos Christodoulides, an independent elected in 2023 with support from DIKO, EDEK and Democratic Alignment. The ballot was treated as a test of opinion before the 2028 presidential election, and it fell during Cyprus’s rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. Coverage of the campaign identified corruption and the cost of living as the main issues, in a field of 753 candidates. When the new House met on 4 June 2026, it re-elected DISY leader Annita Demetriou as its president, by 29 votes to 19 for AKEL leader Stefanos Stefanou.

Background

The outgoing House and the presidency

Voters in the government-controlled areas of Cyprus went to the polls on 24 May 2026 to fill the Greek Cypriot seats in the House of Representatives, at the end of the five-year term elected on 30 May 2021. Of 80 statutory members, 56 are elected by Greek Cypriots; the 24 seats reserved for Turkish Cypriots have been vacant since 1964. In May 2025 the interior ministry fixed the election for 24 May 2026 and dissolution for 23 April. The vote fell during Cyprus’s presidency of the Council of the European Union, from 1 January to 30 June 2026.

The 2021 election left no majority. The Democratic Rally (DISY) won 17 seats and the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) 15; the Democratic Party (DIKO) won nine, the National Popular Front (ELAM), the EDEK Socialist Party and Democratic Alignment (DIPA) four each, and the Movement of Ecologists – Citizens' Cooperation three. DISY’s Annita Demetriou was elected president of the House in June 2021, the first woman in the office.

Cyprus has a presidential system: the president is head of state and of government, chosen for five years separately from the House. Nikos Christodoulides, foreign minister under Nicos Anastasiades, stood in 2023 as an independent after DISY nominated its leader, Averof Neofytou, and expelled him. He was backed by DIKO, EDEK, DIPA and the seatless Solidarity Movement. He led the 5 February first round with 32 per cent, ahead of the AKEL-supported independent Andreas Mavroyiannis on 29.6 per cent and Neofytou on 26.1 per cent, then won the 12 February runoff with about 52 per cent to 48.03 per cent and was sworn in on 28 February. Those three parties held 17 House seats at the start of 2023 and 16 by December, after an EDEK member left the group in January, so DISY and AKEL were the opposition.

Institutional conflict and new political actors

The citizenship-by-investment, or “golden passport,” scheme, abolished after a 2020 Al Jazeera investigation, remained the principal corruption controversy. An inquiry chaired by former Supreme Court judge Myron Nicolatos found in 2021 that a significant number of naturalisations under it had been unlawful. On 17 February 2026 a Nicosia court acquitted former House president Demetris Syllouris and former MP Christakis Giovanis for lack of evidence, the third such acquittal at first instance. The European Commission’s 2025 rule-of-law report said corruption cases still needed more effective investigation and prosecution.

On 18 September 2024 the Supreme Constitutional Court, in a unanimous ruling by eight judges, found Auditor-General Odysseas Michaelides’s conduct inappropriate and removed him, saying he had misinformed the public and lacked self-restraint. Michaelides, who had served ten years, called it a “black day for Cyprus” and said the system had “successfully beheaded” him, accusing Anastasiades, Attorney-General George Savvides and later Christodoulides. On 19 May 2025 he launched Alma, Greek for “leap” and an acronym for dignity, accountability, reform and development.

In the June 2024 European elections, YouTuber Fidias Panayiotou finished third as an independent with 19.36 per cent and won one of Cyprus’s six seats in the European Parliament; ELAM took a seat for the first time and AKEL lost one. In October 2025 he announced a party called Direct Democracy, arguing that one independent member could not change a system in which voters choose decision-makers only once every five years.

Public concerns before the vote

The Cyprus problem was unresolved. The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, created in 1964, has since 1974 supervised the ceasefire lines and buffer zone. Turkey’s intervention that year, after a Greek-backed coup, divided the island, and formal talks had not resumed after the last round failed in 2017. In July 2025 Secretary-General António Guterres said talks between Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had been constructive and that four of six confidence-building measures agreed in March had been carried out. On 19 October Tufan Erhürman, who favoured renewed UN talks on a bizonal, bicommunal federation, defeated Tatar, a proponent of two states, by 62.8 per cent to 35.8 per cent. No settlement was in place when the legislative election was called.

Prices and migration ranked with or above the Cyprus problem in surveys of Greek Cypriots. A December 2024 Cypronetwork poll found inflation the leading concern for nearly two-thirds of respondents, followed by the economy (45 per cent), corruption (43 per cent) and the Cyprus problem (42 per cent); 59 per cent said they had no trust in the government and 57 per cent none in parliament or the parties. Harmonised inflation eased from 2.3 per cent in 2024 to 0.8 per cent in 2025, with energy prices down while restaurants, hotels, recreation and culture still rose. In the autumn 2025 Eurobarometer, taken in October and November, 37 per cent named prices and the cost of living, 35 per cent migration and 23 per cent the economy; 68 per cent said the country was going in the wrong direction. Migration and ELAM’s rise had already been a central issue in 2023, alongside reports of xenophobic violence.

Electoral system

Seats, districts and the franchise

The House of Representatives is elected for five years by universal, direct and secret ballot. The Constitution of Cyprus fixed membership at 50, 70 per cent chosen by the Greek community and 30 per cent by the Turkish community; in 1985 the House raised the total to 80 and attributed 56 seats to the Greek Cypriot community. The Turkish Cypriot seats have been vacant since that community left the Republic’s institutions in 1964, so only 56 are filled.

The six constituencies match the administrative districts, including those outside government control: Nicosia (Lefkosia), Limassol (Lemesos), Famagusta (Ammochostos), Larnaca, Paphos and Kyrenia (Keryneia). Seats follow the roll incorporating the supplementary roll of 2 October of the previous year. In 2026, 561,253 voters divided by 56 gave 10,022 voters a seat; four seats left by rounding went to the largest remainders, leaving Nicosia 19, Limassol 12, Famagusta 11, Larnaca 6, Paphos 5 and Kyrenia 3.

A citizen may vote at 18 on election day after six months’ ordinary residence in Cyprus before applying to register. Registration is compulsory within 30 days—by 2 April 2026 for this election—but the sanction is not enforced, and compulsory voting, with its fine of 200 Cyprus pounds (€340), was abolished on 7 July 2017. Turkish Cypriots with a Republic identity card and an address in the government-controlled areas may register for national elections; those outside government control are on a special roll for European Parliament elections only. Voters abroad may use a polling station in a city with a Cypriot mission if at least 30 from each district so declare in the last quarterly revision, which for 2026 ran from 3 January to 2 April.

Open lists, preferences and thresholds

The 56 seats are filled by open-list party-list proportional representation: a simple proportional first allocation, then two reinforced phases at 3.6 per cent and 7.2 per cent. No national threshold applies in the districts, so a list that meets a district quota wins a seat however small its national share, and an independent, or a list of independents, can be elected only then.

A man displays a Nicosia ballot for the 24 May 2026 parliamentary election, with party columns and preference boxes beside candidate names.

The voter marks one column, or one independent, with a cross, a plus or a tick; a mark in a second column spoils the paper. On that list only, one preference cross is allowed for every four district seats, plus one if the division leaves a remainder: five in Nicosia, three in Limassol and Famagusta, two in Larnaca and Paphos, and one in Kyrenia. Crosses are optional, and extras are ignored while the list vote stands. A party or coalition leader is credited with a preference for every vote the list receives, unless the leader declines and a box is printed.

The district returning officer divides valid votes by the district’s seats, drops the fraction—the Hare quota—and awards one seat for each whole quota. Unused votes of parties that continue, and every unfilled seat, are then pooled nationally by the Chief Returning Officer. A single party needs 3.6 per cent of valid votes, a two-party coalition 10 per cent and a larger coalition 20 per cent; independents are excluded. A second quota is those parties’ unused remainders divided by the seats still open, again without the fraction, and the seats go to districts that still have a vacancy and where the party’s first-allocation remainder is highest.

Any seat still empty goes, one by one, to the list with the largest remainder from that stage, but a single party may take one only with at least 7.2 per cent of the national valid vote; a coalition remains under the 10 or 20 per cent rule. Law 181(I)/2015, gazetted on 9 December 2015, raised the second-stage threshold from 1.8 to 3.6 per cent and replaced the final stage’s condition of 2/56 of the vote with 7.2 per cent, about five months before the 2016 election.

Representatives of the religious groups

Separately from the 56 seats, Armenian Cypriots, Maronite Cypriots and the Latin (Roman Catholic) religious group each elect one representative on the same five-year cycle, under the 1970 Law on Religious Groups (Representation). They attend plenary and the Standing Committee on Education and may speak on their group’s affairs, without a vote, but share members’ immunity, pay and tax exemptions. Their voters cast a ballot both in the general election and, on a separate roll, for their representative.

Contesting parties

Parties of the previous House

Nineteen party combinations and nine independents registered for the 24 May 2026 election to the 56 Greek Cypriot seats in the House of Representatives. Chief returning officer Elikkos Elia, also reported as Elias, called the field a record: 753 candidates, 744 of them on party lists, against 15 combinations and 651 candidates in 2021. Of the 753, 529 were men and 224 women (29.7 per cent). Some count-night reports spoke of 17 parties; the returning officer’s roll contained 19.

All seven parties of the outgoing House stood again. The centre-right Democratic Rally (DISY), grouped with the European People’s Party and led by Annita Demetriou, presented itself as the choice of economic stability, a pro-European foreign policy and institutional seriousness. Before polling day it put the cost of living first, then housing through incentives to build, digitalisation to cut bureaucracy, and urban traffic. The Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL), described in international coverage as communist and led by general secretary Stefanos Stefanou, campaigned on limits to property purchases by non-European Union nationals, a permanent 5 per cent VAT rate on electricity, a tax on excess bank profits for housing, and legally backed collective agreements.

The centrist Democratic Party (DIKO), led by Nikolas Papadopoulos, was the largest party in the bloc that had backed independent president Nikos Christodoulides. It defended that governing role while under pressure from both the two larger parties and newer lists. The National Popular Front (ELAM), led by Christos Christou, was described by Politico as a far-right offshoot of the now-defunct Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, and by Deutsche Welle as an offshoot of that banned party. The Guardian called it anti-immigrant and vociferously anti-Turkish, inspired by Golden Dawn and formed initially as an offshoot, while noting that it was not associated with Golden Dawn’s street violence. Its campaign centred on migration, national identity and a harder line on the Cyprus problem, including closure of checkpoints.

The social-democratic EDEK Socialist Party, founded in 1969, stood under interim leader Nicos Anastasiou after Marinos Sizopoulos resigned in 2025 during a corruption investigation. It had endorsed Christodoulides in 2023. It offered a “General Housing Scheme”, using state land with local authorities and private builders, and a universal pension combining a social pension of about 60 per cent of the median wage with a minimum from the Social Insurance Fund. The Democratic Alignment (DIPA), founded in 2018 by former DIKO members and led by Marios Karoyian, stressed living costs, a single housing authority, social housing and rent subsidies, and support for the middle class, pensioners and small firms. The Movement of Ecologists – Citizens’ Cooperation, the green party of the outgoing House, led by Stavros Papadouris, also stood. With EDEK and DIPA it had held 11 seats. DIKO, DIPA and EDEK were reported as Christodoulides’s centrist parliamentary base.

ALMA and Direct Democracy Cyprus

ALMA – Citizens for Cyprus was launched in Nicosia on 19 May 2025 by former auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides. In September 2024 the Supreme Constitutional Court had removed him: an eight-judge panel found unanimously that he had behaved inappropriately, including by undermining the attorney-general’s opinions, and was unfit for office. He called the ruling a “black day” and a gag on the audit office; Attorney-General George Savvides said the order should be respected. The name is the Greek for “leap” and was also given as an acronym for dignity, accountability, reform and development. Michaelides said Cyprus needed a “restart”, and called for a federal settlement on United Nations resolutions that would be viable, compatible with European Union law, free of third-party intervention rights, and a continuation of the Republic with one sovereignty, one international personality and one citizenship. Politico described ALMA as a centrist newcomer drawing on anger at the establishment after the dismissal.

Direct Democracy Cyprus was created about six months before the vote by YouTuber and member of the European Parliament Fidias Panayiotou, who had taken 19.4 per cent as an independent in the 2024 European election. He said the party would put citizens into decisions through technology, and it fielded 56 candidates. After the election he declined the House seat he had won, because the law bars holding a national seat and a European seat together, and said an MEP would help the party; the seat passed to neuroscientist Yiannis Laouris.

Other lists

The Cypriot list of the pan-European Volt Europa movement, fighting its first full parliamentary campaign, closed under co-presidents Panos Parras and Andromache Sophocleous. They called a vote for the party one for “political modernisation and institutional control”, not protest, and stressed transparency, housing, digital government and the environment, in a pro-European and bicommunal pitch. Candidates included former ecologist parliamentarian Alexandra Attalidou and writer Makarios Drousiotis.

The Active Citizens – United Cyprus Hunters Movement, led by Nicolas Prodromou, fielded 55 candidates, up from 36 in 2021. He said they were “not people of politics, but people of hard work and toil”, and used the motto “the homeland and the people above all”. The list drew a rural vote concerned with hunting, access to the countryside and distrust of urban decision-makers.

The returning officer’s other combinations were the Agronomos Agricultural Labour Party, Far-Left Resistance Communism, Democratic Change, the Democratic National Movement, People’s Struggle Freedom, the Patriotic Front Lakedaimonioi, Sikou Pano, and the Green Party of Cyprus, separate from the Movement of Ecologists. Nine candidates stood outside any party. The second, national stage of the seat allocation required 3.6 per cent. Volt, the hunters’ movement, EDEK, DIPA, the Ecologists and the smaller lists all finished below that line and won no seats.

Campaign

Cost of living, migration and the Cyprus problem

The campaign for the 24 May 2026 election to the House of Representatives was fought on prices, migration and distrust of elites rather than on the Cyprus problem. In an analysis for the Institut für Europäische Politik, Hubert Faustmann listed rising living costs, high rents and property prices, stagnating real wages, migration, and dissatisfaction with the political class and allegations of corruption as the dominant issues. Reunification remained symbolically present, he wrote, but was no longer a central mobilising theme. A drone strike on British bases in the south, during the escalation between Israel and Iran, added to the unease.

A Cyprus Mail column on 16 May described inflation, unaffordable housing and the effect of the war with Iran on lower-income households, and a view that the Legal Service left corruption unprosecuted. It argued that the parties had offered little detailed debate on housing, energy or the economy. Deutsche Welle, citing journalist Sotiris Paroutis, said corruption scandals and falling trust were eroding the long two-party pattern of politics in Cyprus.

The Democratic Rally (DISY), the Democratic Party (DIKO), EDEK and the Democratic Alignment largely backed the economic course of President Nikos Christodoulides and attacked the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) over the 2013 financial crisis. Faustmann wrote that DISY and DIKO presented themselves as a stable centre threatened by populist rivals. AKEL, by the column's account, stressed the cost of living, housing, labour rights and limits on foreclosures. The National Popular Front (ELAM), under the slogan "Cyprus First", called for deporting asylum seekers and cutting benefits for immigrants, and took conservative positions on LGBTQ+ rights; Faustmann linked its rise to migration, security and national identity. Former auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides's ALMA campaigned against corruption after the authorities removed him for what they called inappropriate conduct. Fidias Panayiotou's Direct Democracy Cyprus used the social-media following from his 2024 European Parliament campaign to promote participatory politics, especially among younger voters. The column cast AKEL as pressing for reunification with equal political rights and other parties as closer to the status quo; Faustmann judged that the conflict did not drive the contest.

Controversies

The sharpest row of the final week was a proposal to ban rival parties. On 20 May, ELAM's Famagusta candidate Fivos Kyprianou said that if elected he would table a bill to outlaw parties he called a "confirmed threat" to the survival of Hellenism, naming AKEL, Volt and Direct Democracy Cyprus. He proposed an authority to refer such parties to the Supreme Court for a ban. Volt said ELAM had "taken off their masks" and linked the party to Golden Dawn. The proposal opened a debate on 21 May on Alpha TV between AKEL secretary-general Stefanos Stefanou and ELAM leader Christos Christou.

Christou called the post a personal view and said ELAM supported political expression "without restrictions". He then labelled AKEL "the descendants of Stalin, Lenin and Ceausescu". Stefanou answered with a reference to "the mates of Kasidiaris and those who give Nazi salutes", and said what he called ELAM's "spiritual ancestors" in EOKA B had opened the way for the 1974 invasion. Christou replied that the party was founded decades later and declined to call EOKA B traitorous. On Sigma two nights earlier he suggested Christofias had not gone to the front in 1974; Christofias's son said he had served as a medic. Stefanou's reference to eyesight, alluding to a condition Christou has, drew a charge of mockery. Campaigning stopped on 22 May: on the eve and on polling day the law forbade meetings, publication of news or polls, and election posters. Each candidate's spending was capped at €25,000, plus €5,000 in personal expenses.

Opinion polls

Late surveys forecast a much weaker result for the two largest parties than the ballot produced. Prime Consulting, in a poll for Sigma television reported by the Cyprus Mail on 15 May, put DISY on 18 per cent and AKEL on 17.6, ELAM on 10, ALMA on 8, DIKO on 7.4, Direct Democracy Cyprus on 6.2 and Volt on 3.6. EDEK was on 2.3 per cent, the Ecologists' Movement on 1.9 and Democratic Alignment on 1.7, under the 3.6 per cent threshold the report cited for seats, with about 10 per cent undecided. The projected ranges were 13 to 15 seats for DISY and 12 to 14 for AKEL, against 17 and 15 in the outgoing House, and six or seven each for ALMA and Direct Democracy Cyprus.

A RAI survey cited in the 16 May column was lower still: 15.3 per cent for DISY, 15 per cent for AKEL and 26.3 per cent undecided. Deutsche Welle's account on 23 May had the two leaders nearer 20 per cent each, ELAM around 10, ALMA around 8, and Direct Democracy anywhere from 4 to 12 per cent. On election night the Cyprus Mail reported that DISY and AKEL had kept all 17 and 15 seats, contrary to those forecasts of heavy losses.

Results

National totals

The 24 May 2026 election filled the 56 seats in the House of Representatives elected by the Greek Cypriot community in Cyprus; the 24 seats assigned to the Turkish Cypriot community stayed vacant. The Interior Ministry's open-data release, the official count, records 569,182 registered electors and 380,851 ballots cast, a turnout of 66.91 percent. Of those ballots, 372,060 were valid (97.69 percent), 6,621 invalid (1.74 percent) and 2,170 blank (0.57 percent). The Inter-Parliamentary Union, citing the ministry results service and the House, rounds the same turnout to 66.9 percent, from 65.7 percent in 2021, when 366,608 of 557,836 registered electors voted.

Six parties won seats, against seven in 2021, after a 3.6 percent threshold. Shares below are of the 372,060 valid ballots. Election-night roundings of the Democratic Rally (DISY) differed by a tenth of a point: the Cyprus Mail gave 27.2 percent and one Philenews account, citing the ministry, gave 27.1 percent. The open-data total is 101,013 votes, 27.15 percent.

Party	Votes	Share	Seats	Change from 2021
Democratic Rally (DISY)	101,013	27.15%	17	0
Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL)	88,777	23.86%	15	0
National Popular Front (ELAM)	40,567	10.90%	8	+4
Democratic Party (DIKO)	37,222	10.00%	8	−1
ALMA – Citizens for Cyprus	21,700	5.83%	4	New
Direct Democracy Cyprus	20,159	5.42%	4	New
EDEK Socialist Party	12,099	3.25%	0	−4
Active Citizens – United Cypriot Hunters	11,890	3.20%	0	—
Democratic Alignment (DIPA)	11,693	3.14%	0	−4
Volt Cyprus	11,487	3.09%	0	—
Movement of Ecologists – Citizens' Cooperation	7,264	1.95%	0	−3

The seat changes use the IPU's 2021 result: DISY 17, AKEL 15, DIKO 9, ELAM 4, EDEK 4, the Democratic Alignment 4 and the Movement of Ecologists – Citizens' Cooperation 3. The 2026 seat totals are those the IPU gives for the new House. Philenews reported 2021 totals of 99,328 votes for DISY (27.77 percent), 79,913 for AKEL, 24,255 for ELAM (6.78 percent) and 40,395 for DIKO (11.29 percent): DISY and AKEL gained votes without gaining seats, and DIKO lost votes and one seat. The Cyprus Mail described DISY's share as slightly below its 27.8 percent of 2021, with a higher raw vote and the party's first total above 100,000 since 2016. On the same Philenews comparison, EDEK had 24,022 votes in 2021 (6.72 percent), the ecologists 15,762 (4.41 percent), DIPA 21,832 (6.10 percent) and the hunters' list 11,712 (3.27 percent). Other lists and independents together took the remaining 8,189 valid votes (2.20 percent).

Results by district

The 56 seats were divided among six constituencies: Nicosia 19, Limassol 12, Famagusta 11, Larnaca 6, Paphos 5 and Kyrenia 3. The party split Politis published on election night matches the 56 members named the next day and the districts in which the ministry file places their preference votes.

Constituency	Seats	DISY	AKEL	ELAM	DIKO	ALMA	Direct Democracy
Nicosia	19	5	5	3	3	2	1
Limassol	12	4	3	2	1	1	1
Famagusta	11	3	3	2	1	1	1
Larnaca	6	2	2	1	1	0	0
Paphos	5	2	1	0	1	0	1
Kyrenia	3	1	1	0	1	0	0
Total	56	17	15	8	8	4	4

Turnout was highest in Paphos, 34,428 of 47,421 registered electors (72.60 percent), and lowest in Limassol, 74,571 of 117,013 (63.73 percent). Nicosia cast 132,756 ballots from 198,362 registered electors (66.93 percent), Famagusta 79,258 from 116,664 (67.94 percent), Larnaca 40,484 from 60,540 (66.87 percent) and Kyrenia 19,354 from 29,182 (66.32 percent). AKEL led the valid vote in Larnaca, with 11,623 votes (29.41 percent), and in Kyrenia, with 5,246 (27.78 percent). ELAM's largest share was Famagusta, 10,454 votes (13.53 percent) and two seats; it won none in Paphos, on 2,639 votes (7.85 percent), or in Kyrenia. ALMA's seats were two in Nicosia and one each in Limassol and Famagusta; Direct Democracy took one each in Nicosia, Limassol, Famagusta and Paphos.

Preferences, women and first-term members

Seats within a list followed preference crosses, except for party leaders who headed a ballot. The Cyprus Mail reported that Annita Demetriou, the DISY leader, headed the Larnaca list and was not subject to preference voting; the ministry file likewise has no crosses for the other list leaders who were returned. The highest totals included Dimitris Demetriou (DISY, Nicosia) with 13,157, Georgios Pamborides (DISY, Nicosia) with 12,040 and Nikos Kettiros (AKEL, Famagusta) with 11,510. Excluding Demetriou, Savia Orphanidou led women, with 11,367 crosses in Nicosia, ahead of Fotini Tsiridou's 6,956 in Limassol.

Fidias Panayiotou led Direct Democracy in Nicosia with 5,108 preferences, then told the Interior Ministry he would not take the seat and would remain in the European Parliament. The place passed to the next candidate, Yiannis Laouris, with 1,700 preferences. He was named with Diana Lucia Constantinidi, Dimitris Souglis and Dimitris Baros as the party's four members. The narrowest margin was in Paphos, where Baros was returned with 280 crosses, five ahead of the next name on his list. In Famagusta, DIKO's Zacharias Koulias finished on 2,700, 67 ahead of Christos Senekis. In Kyrenia, Dimos Georgiades took DISY's only seat with 1,935 preferences, 239 ahead of Rita Superman, who was not re-elected.

Eleven women and 45 men were elected, 19.6 percent, up from eight women and 48 men (14.3 percent) in 2021. Of 753 candidates, 224 were women (29.7 percent), compared with 160 of 658 (24.3 percent) in 2021. The Cyprus Mail called 11 the most women returned at a parliamentary election, while noting that the House had counted 12 women in 2020 after mid-term changes. Six of the eight women from 2021 who stood again were re-elected: Demetriou, Tsiridou and Orphanidou (DISY), Marina Nicolaou (AKEL), Christiana Erotokritou (DIKO) and Irene Charalambidou, standing for ALMA. Five women were elected for the first time: Nicoletta Constantinou (DISY, Paphos), the first woman returned from that district; Argentoula Ioannou (AKEL, Limassol); Anastasia Hasikou (AKEL, Kyrenia); Theodoulitsa Drousiotou (ALMA, Famagusta); and Constantinidi (Direct Democracy, Famagusta). DISY seated four women, AKEL three, ALMA two, and DIKO and Direct Democracy one each; ELAM seated none. Alexandra Attalides, standing for Volt in Nicosia, was not re-elected.

The IPU recorded 27 first-term members, 48.2 percent, against 20 (35.7 percent) in 2021. Philenews identified the youngest as Efraim Christou (AKEL, Limassol), elected with 4,966 preferences, and Baros, both 24, and the oldest as Koulias, 75, a Famagusta MP since 1999.

Opening of the House

Election of the president

The new House of Representatives met for the first time on 4 June 2026. The sitting opened with the confirmation of the 56 members and of the representatives of the three religious groups, and was chaired by the oldest member, Zacharias Koulias of the Democratic Party (DIKO), until a president of the House was chosen. The vote was the first under rules adopted on 2 April 2026, in place of a procedure dating from 1985 that could run to four rounds.

Candidates are nominated by members who are not themselves standing. The first round requires an absolute majority of the 56 members—29 affirmative votes—and negative votes and abstentions do not count. If nobody reaches 29, the two leading candidates go to a second round decided by a simple majority, meaning more votes than the other candidate. A tie produces another vote between those two and, if that is also tied, a drawing of lots.

Four candidates stood. Annita Demetriou, leader of the Democratic Rally (DISY) and president of the House since 10 June 2021, when she became the first woman in the post, received 21 votes: DISY’s 17 and the four of Direct Democracy Cyprus. Stefanos Stefanou, general secretary of the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL), received 19, from AKEL’s 15 members and the four of ALMA. Christos Christou, leader of the National Popular Front (ELAM), and DIKO leader Nikolas Papadopoulos received eight each, from their own parties, and were eliminated.

In the runoff Demetriou won 29 votes, from DISY, DIKO and Direct Democracy Cyprus, against 19 for Stefanou from AKEL and ALMA. ELAM’s eight members abstained. DIKO had said beforehand that it would back Demetriou if Papadopoulos did not advance. ELAM member Marios Pelekanos had said the party would vote for Christou in the first round and would not support Demetriou, or any AKEL candidate, in the second. Only a simple majority was required in that round; 29 was also more than half the sitting House.

Demetriou called the vote the highest honour and responsibility. She said she would keep faith with the constitution, the laws and the rules of the House, hear every member equally, and answer concern over the cost of living, housing, energy, pensions, health, education and safety. President Nikos Christodoulides congratulated her and said cooperation between the executive and the legislature was essential, with their roles kept distinct.

The government's position in parliament

The election did not choose the government. Cyprus is a presidential republic: the Constitution vests executive power in the president, who appoints the ministers. Christodoulides, elected in 2023, remained in office. Of the three parties that had supported his government, DIKO kept eight seats, while the EDEK Socialist Party and the Democratic Alignment (DIPA) won none. He said on election night that DIPA and EDEK had missed the threshold by tens or hundreds of votes and “deserved to be in the new House”, and that the government would continue its programme “through collaboration”, seeking “convergences” on shared priorities “without horse-trading”.

Laws and decisions of the House pass by a simple majority of the representatives present and voting. A change to the electoral law, a law on the municipalities, or a law imposing duties or taxes requires a separate simple majority of the representatives of each community taking part in the vote. No party approaches half of the 56 sitting members: DISY has 17, AKEL 15, ELAM and DIKO eight each, and ALMA and Direct Democracy Cyprus four each. Of the parties in the new House, only DIKO had supported the Christodoulides government.

Victor Papadopoulos, director of the president’s press office, said two days after the election that the government would work with every party where positions overlapped, on its priorities and on other bills, “just as it has done since the election of the President”. He pointed to earlier majorities, among parties of a similar outlook, on tax reform and migration. He called the exclusion of EDEK and DIPA “unfair” and said cooperation with both would continue from outside parliament; any cabinet change, he said, was for the president alone.

The speakership vote was not itself a majority for the government’s bills. DISY, DIKO and Direct Democracy Cyprus supplied Demetriou’s 29; AKEL and ALMA stayed with Stefanou; ELAM withheld its eight. What remained inside the House of the parties that had backed Christodoulides in 2023 was DIKO’s eight seats, and both he and his press office described the term as one of finding agreement with whichever parties shared a given priority.

Parties that lost representation

Exits from the previous House

Three parties from the outgoing House of Representatives finished below the 3.6% threshold and lost every seat. EDEK, Democratic Alignment (DIPA) and the Movement of Ecologists – Citizens' Cooperation had held four, four and three seats in 2021.

EDEK, founded in 1969 and represented without a break since it first contested a legislative election in 1970, took 12,099 votes, reported as 3.25% and about 3.3% — roughly half the 24,024 votes and 6.72% of 2021, and its worst result. DIPA, in the House for the first time in 2021 with 21,834 votes (6.10%), fell to 11,693 votes and 3.1%. The Ecologists fell from 15,762 votes and 4.41%, and three seats, to 7,264 votes and 2%, in 11th place. The party said that ended 25 years in parliament; the Cyprus Mail called it the first election since 1996 in which the movement won no seat, and its worst parliamentary result since then. With state funding tied to parliamentary status, the movement said it had to cut costs to survive. Its central committee later approved cutting salaried staff from ten to two and closing every district office except Nicosia.

President Nikos Christodoulides said on election night that DIPA and EDEK, two of the three parties supporting his government, “deserved to be in the new House” and had missed it “by tens or hundreds of votes.” Of the parties that backed his 2023 campaign, only the Democratic Party remained in the legislature. EDEK later lost its only ministry when agriculture minister Maria Panayiotou was replaced by a Democratic Party nominee. DIPA stayed in government through defence minister Vasilis Palmas and labour minister Marinos Mousiouttas. Without seats, the three parties no longer sit on the National Council. Christodoulides said he would keep EDEK briefed on the Cyprus problem, and in October he met the three leaderships apart from the Council.

Near-misses and leadership changes

Two lists outside the previous House finished in the same band, still short of 3.6%. The Hunters’ Movement took about 3.2%, above its pre-election polling, and Volt took 3.1% (11,487 votes). Polls had indicated that Volt would enter. The rest were much further back: Andreas Themistocleous’s Democratic National Movement on 0.7%, Sikou Pano! (Get Up!) on 0.5%, the Agronomos party and Christos Clerides’s Democratic Change on 0.3% each, and the Green Party, the Lacedaemonians and independent Kyriakos Savva on 0.1% each.

The exits brought leadership changes. EDEK’s Nikos Anastasiou, leader since June 2025 after Marinos Sizopoulos, offered his resignation on election night. The central committee declined it and treated the result as a collective responsibility, although secretary-general Lefteris Georgiou resigned. On 14 July Anastasiou stepped down, saying he had failed to unite the party. On 5 September members elected 27-year-old Sofia Christodoulou Makri with 53.5% (1,191 votes), ahead of Koullis Mavronikolas (35.4%) and Giorgos Kouttoukis (11.1%).

DIPA leader Marios Garoyian also tendered his resignation. The politburo rejected it, and he was expected to seek another term at a December congress. The Ecologists’ leadership offered its resignation; the central committee scheduled an extraordinary congress, while Stavros Papadouris, still in place for the transition, was reported undecided about standing again. Volt co-chairs Andromache Sophocleous and Panos Parras did not stand again. On 10 October members elected Pieros Karoullas and Lysia Demetriou.

Significance

Domestic assessments

Cypriot commentators read 24 May 2026 as a check on an anti-establishment surge. The Cyprus Mail reported that the 3.6 per cent threshold kept EDEK, DIPA, the Greens and Volt out, leaving fewer parties in the House of Representatives than polls had implied, while DISY and AKEL held their seats. Analyst Vasilis Protopapas said backing for ELAM, ALMA and Direct Democracy Cyprus had “deflated” in the last fortnight. The war in the Persian Gulf and a drone incident at Akrotiri, he argued, led many voters toward a “safe haven” in what he called the “serious” parties. The House had shifted right, he said, without a radical electorate: a cautious middle class still wanted stability, including on the Cyprus problem.

Pambos Papageorgiou of European University Cyprus separated that majority from President Nikos Christodoulides’s chances. Because DISY had rallied under Annita Demetriou, he said, the party was more likely to run its own candidate in 2028 than to endorse the president. He called DIKO’s 10 per cent a historic low and contrasted the newcomers: ALMA as the more serious opposition, held back by Odysseas Michaelides’s confrontational style, and Fidias Panayiotou’s group as internally mismatched. Protopapas added that Michaelides, looking toward the presidency, had hoped to pass ELAM, so 5.8 per cent was a strong debut but below that aim, while ELAM’s gains still missed polls near 15 per cent after the party was tied too closely to the government.

In September Demetriou told CyBC that DISY would not back Christodoulides for a second term and would offer its own candidate. In October Stavros Antoniou wrote in Politis that DIKO and ELAM, each with about twice the May vote of ALMA or Direct Democracy, could decide a runoff if Demetriou, Averof Neophytou and Christodoulides split the centre-right. DIKO’s support for the president, he wrote, was no longer assured. Christos Christou, he added, had set aside differences with Demetriou, while ELAM left every option open in pursuit of a share of executive power.

International coverage and the road to 2028

With all votes counted, Politico described a more fragmented parliament: ELAM, which it called an offshoot of Greece’s defunct Golden Dawn, was third on 10.9 per cent, and DIPA and EDEK, backers of Christodoulides in 2023, were out. Harry Tzimitras, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo Cyprus Centre, said the vote marked “the end of an era for political parties that have been part of the political scene for 50 years,” and that passing laws would be harder, with debate already under way on suspending or abolishing the National Council that discusses the Cyprus issue. Finance Minister Makis Keravnos, interviewed on 23 May, had called fragmentation a European pattern rather than a Cypriot one: “I’m not worried,” he said, because democracy “has a way of self-regulating” and “this government was not supported by major parties in parliament anyway.” Politico noted that Cyprus, which held the Council of the European Union presidency until the end of June, has a House of limited powers under a presidential system, so the vote flagged the alliances a 2028 bid would need.

Kathimerini quoted Fiona Mullen and Hubert Faustmann on a “delicate balancing act.” Faustmann said that without DISY the president would “necessarily need ELAM support, formally or informally, for any chance of reelection.” The report added that ALMA had ruled out working with ELAM, and carried Christodoulides’s pledge of “substantial, honest and institutionally responsible” cooperation with the new House. Deutsche Welle, on an incomplete count, likewise called the night a blow to his centrist supporters and a test before 2028, while noting that the presidency itself was not at stake. In a May brief for the Institut für Europäische Politik, Faustmann wrote that migration, not the Cyprus conflict, had shaped the campaign, and that formal cooperation with ELAM stayed “politically taboo” even as it gained weight on migration and security. Dependence on ELAM and DIKO, he argued, conflicted with an early return to peace talks, though he expected no basic change in European policy beyond migration.