Cyprus

There are two different types of local authorities in Cyprus: communities in rural areas and municipalities in urban and tourism areas.

Communities

The community council (koinotiko sumvoulio) is made up of members elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term. It acts as a legislative board adn comprises a president and a vice-president.

Municipalities

The municipal council (dimotiko sumvoulio) is the municipality's deliberative assembly and is made up of members elected by direct universal suffrage for a five years period. Its responsibilities include providing assistance and advising the mayor with respect to the execution of his/her duties. The municipal council also sets up different committees within the municipality, including the management committee responsible for preparing the budget and other ad-hoc committees that provide technical, cultural, environmental and personnel assistance.

Communities

The president (proedros) of the community is elected by direct universal suffrage for a period of five years and chairs the community council.

Municipalities

The mayor (dimarchos) is the municipality's executive head and is elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year mandate. He/she represents the municipality in legal proceedings before any state authority. The mayor also supervises the municipal administration and chairs the municipal council.

A community may become a municipality by local referendum provided that it has a population of more than 5,000 or that it has sufficient economic resources to function as a municipality.

There has been an ongoing consultation with the central government to reform local self-government. Three bills of law have already been sent to the House of Parliament. The bills provide for the compulsory clustering of services between municipalities and/or communities in order to jointly promote various competences, policies