Plenum cancelled over lack of business

Thursday’s scheduled session of the House plenary was postponed due to the dearth of items on the agenda, but had it been held the position of acting House Speaker would have gone to a new MP elected for the first time in May this year. The House plenum was cancelled because there were not enough items on the agenda, according to Alma MP Yiannis Laouris. “I don’t think it’s the first time it was postponed. There was one other occasion when it was cancelled due to the lack of subjects,” Laouris told media. As the eldest member of parliament, Laouris would have presided over the proceedings had the plenary taken place. Aged 68, Laouris got into parliament on the Alma party ticket following the legislative elections held this May. It is his first term as MP. However, had Thursday’s plenary taken place, he would have acted as House Speaker in the absence of Annita Demetriou, currently overseas attending a conference in Rome. Normally, during sessions of the House plenary, the House Speaker (Demetriou) would take over as acting president of the Republic in the physical absence of the president from the country. President Nikos Christodoulides is currently abroad, attending an EU summit in Brussels. That would mean the House Speaker would act as president. But since Demetriou is also away, the acting president of the Republic is designated as the longest-serving member of parliament – in this case, it happens to be Diko MP Zacharias Koulias. Koulias has held his parliamentary seat continuously since 1999. Since Koulias would have been designated as acting president, the designated acting House Speaker would have been the eldest MP – which happens to be Laouris. Had the House plenary been held on Thursday, MPs would have voted on the reduced excise duty on heating oil, which the government recently announced as part of a relief package relating to the rising cost of living.