ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Cyprus profiles of longstanding democracies and of the European Union, and provides essential detail on history, electoral system, political parties and cleavages, and governments. Cyprus was a British colony until 1960. Upon independence, a consociational institutional structure was planned to recognize the division between the Greek majority and the Turkish minority on the island. A 1974 attempt to unite the island with Greece led to the invasion of the northern, Turkish part of the island by the armed forces of Turkey. In 1976 Cyprus used a multi-member plurality system which was highly biased. For all subsequent elections Cyprus has used a proportional representation system in multi-member districts. The Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL) is Cyprus’ main left-of-centre party. AKEL originated as the Communist Party of Cyprus in 1941 and is therefore the only party to have a history that predates independence.
