Who is your vote going to?

With the next presidential elections just around the corner, there is concern about whom to vote for and which party supports the individual candidates.

As the voting system is, it limits the voter to choose based on the supporting political party, which may be the easy part here because it is the basic philosophy of the voter.

If, for example, you don’t believe in the capitalist system, you will cast your vote to the left. However, if you are now in favour of the bizonal bicommunal federation regarding the Cyprus problem, there are 2-3 parties that might represent you.

While there are another 1-2 parties constantly “worrying” without concrete proposals that might respond to your thoughts/opinions.

So, after choosing the party that represents you, the next is your choice of candidate.

We now have numerous candidates, some young in age and others with unknown backgrounds, who we hope will offer something new, not so much to our political issue but the economy and the proper running of the State.

But any candidate should follow the line of their party/interest, and thus independent voices in the new presidency cannot be freely expressed, making the independent candidacy rather theoretical.

You will remember the presidency of George Vassiliou, who was supported by AKEL, who did not “allow” the president to apply to Cyprus to join the EU for their own reasons.

And this was despite the encouragement of the then Greek government to submit as long as Greece held the presidency of the EU.

The new presidential elections are approaching, and we are observing the candidates themselves and the political parties that support them.

We are trying to understand if, apart from our political issue (which is certainly the biggest issue), they are dealing with the down-to-earth problems that this country is facing (which I believe they do not).

Because we, as a real estate office, deal with the construction industry, I submit, for your consideration, issues that the President-elect should address and offer solutions that concern this sector.

• Common expenses in joint ownership – Only recently has the Legislation Commissioner begun to deal with the issue after 20 years of inactivity!

• Small Claims Courts – There is now a proposal for disputes of up to EUR 10,000 to be quickly resolved by this court. God knows when and if it will happen.

• The insurance scam system is the worst that can happen, and the insurance you think you have, in fact, does not exist. So what does the Insurance Commissioner do?

• Unanswered questions from the various Commissioners and others, which even the Judicial Services complain about (see also legislation to answer in 30 days, with a penalty for delays, an unenforceable status).

• Independence of journalists by establishing journalistic investigations and awarding them a Pulitzer-style prize.

• Corruption – The phenomenon is known, but what tangible proposal is there to limit it? • Public tenders and delays (there is a proposal).

• Rents and student housing – No proposal despite the problem (there is a proposal for help without subsidies).

• Coexistence of development and environment (there is a proposal).

• Undeclared work and its encouragement due to VAT. • Positive or negative role of the Auditor General? • Relevant to the various issues are the “advisers” of MPs who hold positions to serve their political parties instead of knowledge (there is a proposal involving the University of Cyprus).

• Financial Commissioner – We need to extend his intervention to curb the arbitrariness of some banks.

• Tenancy and the extension of the new legislation to noninstitutional tenants?

• The folly of imposing minimum size areas on housing, increasing disposal/rental costs – Why does it exist?

• Licensed artisans and their promotion through technical schools, with a corresponding wage increase. A solution to bad building quality?

These are some topics, there are many others, but this column does not have the space to accommodate them all.