Independent In-depth Paragraph by Paragraph Analysis of the Implications of the Annan Plan

Foundation Agreement

Article 5 The federal government

1. The federal Parliament composed of two chambers, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, shall exercise the legislative power:

a. Each Chamber shall have 48 members. The Senate shall be composed of an equal number of Senators from each constituent state. The Chamber of Deputies shall be composed in proportion to persons holding internal constituent state citizenship status of each constituent state, provided that each constituent state shall be attributed no less than one quarter of seats.

Comments

The principles of the above article deviate from UN Resolutions and the definition of Political Equity given by the Secretary General in the eleventh paragraph of annex I to his report dated 8 March 1990 (S/21183); noting that it is not the same as numerical equality.

At present the Turkish Cypriots number 85,000 where as the Greek Cypriots, Armenians, Maronites, and Latin’s number 700,000. Assuming that separate Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot cantons are created through Kofi Annans policy of Apartheid a ratio of 11% to 89% cannot possibly justify giving the Turkish Cypriots a right to hold 25% of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies which is more than double their proportion of the population nor can a it justify giving them 50% of the seats in the Senate. If Annan’s proposals were to be accepted there would be serious resentment and outrage among the majority of the population who would be disenfranchised and degraded.

The notion of so-called constituent state citizenship mentioned above is totally incompatible with the idea of a Federation. A federal state does not vest the constituent states with the right to grant citizenship.  As a resident of California for example, as person is a California resident and not a California citizen.

The idea that the Chamber of Deputies shall be composed in proportion to persons holding so-called “internal constituent state citizenship status” of each constituent state is also incompatible with the principles of a federation since it compliantly degrades the value Cyprus Federal citizenship in favour of so called “constituent state citizenship”.

The principles of a federation, democracy and equality dictate that the Chamber of Deputies should be elected on a constituency basis by all persons holding Cyprus citizenship by the system of one person one vote, and the Senate should be elected on the basis of residency by the system of one person one vote and the seat allocation in the Senate should be in proportion to the population of each canton.

At present there are 56 seats in the Cyprus parliament and reducing this to 48 when at the same time the number of voters will increase is not tenable. The number of seats should be increased to 62.

Therefore Mr Annan must amend the above article accordingly.

Amendment Required

1. The federal Parliament composed of two chambers, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, shall exercise the legislative power:

a. Each Chamber shall have 62 members. The number of Senators in the Senate shall be composed in proportion to the number persons from each canton and be elected by proportional representation with separate lists for each canton. The Chamber of Deputies shall be elected on the basis of one person one vote by those holding federal citizenship on a constituency basis.

Clarification Required

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revised 30/01/04