Nicosia, Cyprus. Akel MP Giorgos Koukoumas will chair the House human rights committee, taking over from his party colleague Irene Charalambides after the committee’s meeting on Monday.
Handover announced at committee meeting
Charalambides said on Monday that she was chairing the committee for the last time. She said Koukoumas was taking over and that she was happy to hand over the chairmanship to him.
Charalambides expressed gratitude for cooperation with committee MPs over the years. Volt’s Alexandra Attalides and Diko’s Christos Senekis responded with praise for the committee’s work under her leadership, with Senekis saying she was “the right person in the right position.”
Background to the change in chair
The change follows Charalambides’ removal from Akel’s parliamentary group earlier in February. At the time, she said the decision was made unilaterally by the party’s leadership and accused the party of undermining her character to fit a partisan narrative.
The dispute followed months of strained relations between Charalambides and Akel after the party decided to enforce its internal term limits ahead of the May parliamentary elections. Akel’s party rules limiting MPs to two terms rendered Charalambides ineligible to run again on the party’s ballot, as she is serving her third consecutive term.
New chair’s constituency
Koukoumas is an MP for the Famagusta district.
What do you think the chairmanship change will mean for the committee’s work?