Pamboridis proposes replacing constitution in Disy leadership bid

George Pamboridis has called for Cyprus to replace its 1960 Constitution with a new charter, setting out the proposal as the centrepiece of his bid for the Disy nomination in a policy speech to journalists on Thursday. The former health minister told reporters the island needed “a new, functional, modern and European constitution” that would introduce institutional counterweights across state activity. He said it must not weaken the sovereignty of the Republic and should act “as a lever for development and not as a hindrance”. His argument rests on the legal consequences of 1963, when Turkish Cypriots withdrew their posts in the state following the constitutional crisis.

The 1960 constitution assigned set roles to both communities, and its provisions could not be applied without them, thus the Supreme Court responded by applying the doctrine of necessity, which allows state bodies to function when strict adherence to the Constitution would make that impossible. The doctrine has since underpinned legislation and the running of the state, and critics argue it was never meant to be permanent. Pamboridis said such a situation had facilitated a state without proper checks on power, tying the issue to public concern about corruption, which he said had “spread into every facet of public life”. Until a new constitution is agreed, he said, the state should create specific offences for public officials, rebuild its mechanisms for punishing wrongdoing and guarantee that investigations are free from supervision. Turning to the Cyprus problem, he said the party was founded to resolve it and that this aim had not changed. He criticised what he described as prolonged inaction while Turkey “consolidated the status quo”, stressing that he would never accept any two-state solution, “no…