House plenary postponed, leaving first-term MP’s turn as acting Speaker unrealised

Nicosia, Cyprus. Thursday’s House plenary was postponed because its agenda contained too few items, according to Alma MP Yiannis Laouris. The cancellation meant the first-term parliamentarian did not take the chair as acting House Speaker while Annita Demetriou was overseas.

First-term MP would have chaired proceedings

Laouris, 68, entered parliament through Alma in the legislative election held in May this year. As parliament’s oldest member, he would have presided over Thursday’s sitting under the succession arrangements applying during the absence of senior officeholders.

Speaking to the media, Laouris said he did not believe this was the first such postponement, recalling another occasion when a sitting had been cancelled because there were too few subjects to discuss.

Overseas visits trigger succession arrangements

Demetriou is attending a conference in Rome, while President Nikos Christodoulides is in Brussels for an EU summit.

Normally, when the president is outside the country, the House Speaker assumes presidential duties, including during plenary sittings. With Demetriou also abroad, those duties fall to parliament’s longest-serving member, Diko MP Zacharias Koulias.

Koulias has served continuously in parliament since 1999. His designation as acting president would therefore have left the role of acting House Speaker to the oldest MP, Laouris, had Thursday’s session proceeded.