The “unrepresented vote”, ballots cast for independents or parties failing to cross the parliamentary threshold, has become a decisive factor in Cyprus’ political scene. In the 2021 parliamentary elections it surged to 14.58%, or 52,205 voters, surpassing even the third-largest party, DIKO. This trend, coupled with record abstention rates, reflects widespread voter discontent with traditional parties and the rise of new political forces.
Once negligible (0.21% in 2001), the unrepresented vote has grown steadily, peaking dramatically in 2021. Its weight was underscored further in the 2024 European elections, when influencer-turned-politician Fidias Panayiotou captured 19.36% and a seat in the European Parliament, signaling a strong anti-establishment mood.
Surveys ahead of the 2026 parliamentary elections indicate that anti-systemic movements such as Odysseas Michaelides’ ALMA and ELAM are gaining significant ground, while smaller parties and independents also vie for slices of the same electorate. Traditional parties, meanwhile, appear focused on consolidating their bases through ideological appeals rather than targeting unrepresented voters.
A problem of trust
The outcome may reshape Cyprus’ party system, pushing it towards further fragmentation and political uncertainty. The problem of wasted or unrepresented votes is not unique to Cyprus, though it arises under different conditions elsewhere. In Cyprus, the proportional system with its 3.6% threshold means that ballots cast for smaller parties or independents often fail to translate into seats, swelling a pool of voters left without parliamentary voice. In the United Kingdom, by contrast, the first-past-the-post system wastes millions of votes in each election, as only the top candidate in each constituency wins and all others are disregarded.
In both cases, the result is frustration with the political system, fragmentation and volatility in Cyprus, and entrenched two-party dominance in Britain. Both in Cyprus and in the UK, the rules were designed or preserved by dominant parties that believed they would always win under them. The debate, then, is not whether wasted votes can be eliminated, they never can, but whether their scale has grown so large that it undermines trust in representation itself. Yet one thing is certain: when voters feel their ballot does not count, the system itself comes under strain.