Ballot boxes are being handed over today by Returning Officers of all districts to the presiding officers of the 1,864 polling stations that will operate in the June 9, 2024 elections, Chief Returning Officer, Dr. Elikkos Elia said on Friday. 

He was speaking during the hand-over of ballot boxes to the presiding officers of polling stations of the Nicosia district. The process was also attended by the Election Returning Officer of Nicosia, Prefect of Nicosia, Andreas Hadjipakkos.

Elia told reporters that more than 9 thousand officials are working these days for the elections as well as 3 thousand police officers, in order to successfully conduct one of the most complex election procedures set to take place on Sunday, June 9.

“There is the delivery of the ballot boxes today in all the districts. We will have 1,847 polling stations in Cyprus and another 17 abroad, in Greece, in the United Kingdom and in Brussels,” Elia said.

At the same time, he urged voters to exercise their right to vote on Sunday, noting that the electoral process will begin at 7:00 am until 12:00 noon, and will resume at 13:00 noon to conclude at 18:00 in the afternoon.

According to Elia, the results are expected to be published on Sunday evening and he expressed the estimate that "around 19:30 in the evening we will begin to gradually learn the results for the Mayors, Deputy Mayors, the Presidents of the Community Councils."

He pointed out that the names of the elected MEPs, members of the Municipal and Community Councils and School Boards will be known on Monday morning.

According to the Chief Returning Officer, all ballots for all elections will be placed in a ballot box and then sorted and counted by election procedure. The counting will be done at the polling stations, he indicated.

Finally, Elias reminded that voters in the mayoral districts will vote up to six ballots and voters in local communities will vote up to four ballots.

For his part, the Returning Officer of Nicosia reported that there will be 689 polling stations in the Nicosia District with approximately 225,000 voters, representing 38% of all voters in Cyprus.

He added that 23 polling stations will operate for Turkish Cypriot voters. 

“We have implemented new technologies for transmitting results electronically and other electronic procedures. I hope that in this way we will reduce the time of announcing the results and reduce any errors,” Hadjipakkos said.