Cyprus’ election law governing campaign spending by parliamentary candidates contains significant gaps, weaknesses and ambiguities, allowing both candidates and political parties to easily circumvent the €30,000 ceiling set for election expenses. Of this amount, €5,000 is allocated for personal expenses and €25,000 for all other campaign costs.
The Audit Office, which is responsible for monitoring election spending, has repeatedly called for amendments to the legislation, warning that the current framework severely limits the scope and effectiveness of oversight.
Under the existing law, the €30,000 spending limit can be breached with relative ease through a number of practices. These include cash payments, payments made via third-party individuals or legal entities, and expenses incurred before the official start of the pre-election period or after election day.
A system open to abuse
Oversight of candidates’ election spending applies only to the three-month period preceding election day. In this case, the official pre-election period begins on February 24, 2026 and ends on May 24, 2026, the day of the parliamentary elections.
As a result, any expenses or campaign activities undertaken by candidates or by parties on their behalf before February 24, 2026 are not required to be declared in the election spending reports submitted for audit. Already, several candidates have begun campaigning from early December, organising gatherings and advertising on social media and on billboards.
Candidates may also purchase and prepay services before February 24, such as receptions, hotel or venue bookings, gifts and other campaign-related services. These services can then be provided during the official pre-election period without being declared as election expenses, since payment was made before the period subject to audit. Consequently, such costs are excluded from the €30,000 spending cap.
Further undermining transparency, candidates are not required to declare expenses covered by third parties, including relatives, friends, companies or even their own political parties. This practice further weakens the Audit Office’s ability to carry out effective checks.
Interior minister sought increase to the spending cap
Last May, during discussions at the House Interior Committee on proposals to modernise election legislation, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou submitted a written position supporting amendments to the law. Among other changes, he argued in favour of increasing the current €30,000 cap on election spending by parliamentary candidates.
Ioannou was commenting on a joint proposal submitted by AKEL MPs Giorgos Loukaidis and Aristos Damianou, which provided for raising the spending limit to €60,000. The same proposal would also have allowed a political party or coalition of parties to incur expenses in support of candidates of up to €1 million.
At present, parliamentary parties are not permitted to make such expenditures. The extraordinary state grant of €2.5 million that parties used to receive during election periods to cover campaign costs has, since 2018, been incorporated into their regular annual state funding, effectively increasing the total level of public financing they receive.
In a second proposal, the two AKEL MPs also sought to amend the definition of “election expenses” so that it would include any spending undertaken for electoral purposes, regardless of when it occurs. Under the current law, election expenses are defined solely as those incurred during the official pre-election period, which runs from three months before election day until the day of the vote itself.
Neither of AKEL’s proposals was advanced for a vote, leaving in place a porous legislative framework that continues to allow candidates and parties to exceed spending limits.
Declarations detached from reality
Because the Audit Office lacks sufficient legal tools and evidentiary powers to conduct substantive and effective audits, many candidates submit declarations that bear little relation to their actual campaign spending, aware that oversight is weak.
During the 2021 parliamentary elections, 28 candidates declared the candidate registration fee as their sole campaign expense. A further 97 candidates submitted no supporting documentation or invoices for the expenses they declared, as the law does not explicitly require the submission of such evidence.
At the same time, 569 candidates declared election spending of up to €5,000, while only six candidates reported expenses reaching the €30,000 cap. These figures have fuelled suspicions of systematic underreporting of actual campaign costs.
Spending reports and penalties
Under the current legal framework, a candidate or their election agent who fails to submit an election spending report commits a criminal offence. Upon conviction, they may face up to six months’ imprisonment, a fine of up to €340, or both penalties combined.
In addition, the court may impose the loss of voting rights and order the removal of the individual’s name from the electoral register for a period of up to seven years.