Councils’ strike threat over reforms

THE country’s 28 municipalities have threatened to go on strike over government plans to reform local government, which would see a number of councils merged.

Local elections that had been set to take place in June were delayed to November to allow more time for the reforms to be discussed, following a series of mass demonstrations.

Municipal elections are supposed to be held on November 27, with September 27 set as the final date that municipal reforms can be carried out before the election process begins.

With the September deadline looming, protests once again erupted outside Parliament on Thursday night after the issue was brought back onto the agenda, this time as part of the programme of the Administrative, Public Sector and Health Affairs Committee, which sat until 4.30am yesterday to discuss the plans.

The anger stemmed from the perception that the government was using this particular committee as a means of forcing through the reforms, because it only needs a simple majority for Bills to pass, whereas “ad-hoc committees”, where municipal reforms were previously debated, require unanimous consent of all parties.

Three of the five MPs who sit on the Administrative, Public Sector and Health Affairs Committee are from the governing National Unity Party (UBP).

The current plans would see the number of municipalities in the TRNC reduced from 28 to 18, a move which is unpopular

among swathes of the country.

As a result, municipal workers and their associated trade unions descended on Parliament on Thursday night.

Municipal vehicles blocked the roads around Parliament while MPs discussed the potential reforms inside the building above the noise of the chanting protesters.

The leaders of trade unions representing the municipalities said on Thursday that they were ready to call an “indefinite strike” over the government’s handling of the issue.

However yesterday Mustafa Yalınkaya, the chairman of the Municipality Workers Union (BES), said that the action had been called off “for today” after saying that the draft Bill on merging municipalities was passed by the committee in a way that will “not prejudice the rights of employees”.

He said that the draft Bill will now be debated in the General Assembly of Parliament on Monday.