The president of Cyprus and how the country is run

For a visitor, Cypriot politics can seem remote, but it explains much of what you’ll see, from the Green Line to the bilingual place names. Here’s who governs, how they’re elected and why the House has empty seats, drawing on the EU, the Spanish foreign ministry and the House itself. The historical background is in the history of Cyprus.

A presidential republic

The EU explains it in a sentence. Cyprus is a presidential republic, and the president is both head of state and head of government. There’s no prime minister. The Spanish foreign ministry adds that this was set by the 1960 Constitution and that the president is elected for five years by absolute majority, with a second round if nobody reaches it in the first.

The Constitution was signed in Nicosia on 16 August 1960, independence day. The UN describes a power-sharing design between the two communities, with the top two posts and the cabinet divided between them. Even the flag came out of that balance, a neutral design chosen jointly by the president and vice-president, as I explain in the Cyprus flag. That arrangement broke down at the end of 1963, as I explain in the Cyprus problem.

The current president

Nikos Christodoulides won the presidential election on 12 February 2023 with 51.97% of the vote, according to the Spanish foreign ministry, and is the Republic’s eighth president. He was born in Paphos in 1973 and was a career diplomat from 1999 to 2018. He stood as an independent, backed by EDEK, DIKO and DIPA. His five-year term points to the next presidential election in 2028.

From January to June 2026 Cyprus chaired the Council of the EU, its second turn after 2012, the Spanish foreign ministry notes.

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The House of Representatives

The House is elected every five years by universal, direct, secret and compulsory vote, its website explains. In 1985 it decided to move to 80 seats, 56 for the Greek Cypriot community and 24 for the Turkish Cypriot community. Turkish Cypriot members left the House after the fighting of December 1963, and the House records that their seats have been vacant since. Today its website only sets out how the 56 Greek Cypriot seats are allocated.

The constituencies are the six districts, including Kyrenia, which lies entirely in the north. Nicosia elects 21 members, Limassol 12, Famagusta 11, Larnaca 5, Paphos 4 and Kyrenia 3. What each district offers visitors is in the districts of Cyprus.

Minorities in the House

There’s a detail I find rather lovely. Armenians, Latins and Maronites, the three recognised religious groups, each send one member to the chamber, who may speak but can’t vote. All three enjoy official recognition, the Spanish foreign ministry adds. What religion looks like on the island today, with census figures, is in religion in Cyprus.

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What’s missing

The 2026 parliamentary result and the current Speaker’s name are missing here, since no up-to-date official source I could read gives them. Stale facts would be worse than none. What is certain is that Cyprus has been in the EU since 2004, with everything that means for your trip, summed up under is Cyprus in the EU and Schengen.

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