Candidacies shall be submitted to the Chief Returning Officer at the time and place specified in the Notice of the Chief Returning Officer in the Government Gazette of the Republic and shall be displayed in a prominent place of the Community concerned. For the 2024 elelctions at Community level candidacies shall be submitted on Monday 29 April 2024.
Each candidacy shall be submitted in writing and signed by two (2) electors, of whom one signs the candidacy forms as the proposer the other one as the sponsor.

Candidate’s qualifications
Anyone who has the right to vote and who has reached the age of 21 also has the right to stand as a candidate for the post of Community Leader and Member of the Community Council. Citizens may also stand for election in the community within the boundaries of which they have their professional domicile or they exercise their main profession or trade, irrespective of their permanent residence in another Community or Municipality, provided that on the start date of the validity of the Communities (Amending) Law of 2016 they were registered on the electoral roll of the Community in question for a continuous period of at least five (5) years.
Citizens of Member States of the European Union residing in Cyprus may stand as candidates for the post of Member of the Community Council (they cannot stand as candidates for the post of Community Leader and, if they are elected, they cannot claim the office of Deputy Community Leader)..

Impediments and incompatibilities
A person shall not be able to be elected as Community Leader or member of the Community Council if this person:

(a) suffers from a mental disease which makes him incapable of performing his duties as community leader or member of the council, as appropriate,

(b) is an unrehabilitated insolvent,

(c) is deprived of the capacity to contract by virtue of any Law or court decision,

(d) has been convicted within the last ten (10) years prior to the closing date for the submission of his candidacy to stand for election, for a criminal offence of dishonesty or lack of honesty and/or moral turpitude,

(e) Has served in the office of Community Leader or Member of the Council, respectively, for a total of three terms of office, irrespective of the time spent in office within the five-year term of office for which he was elected [concerns general Community elections from 2029 onwards and shall not apply to a number of registered voters not exceeding one hundred (100) voters, and in the event of election as Community Leader or Member of the Council of an occupied Community].

Ministers, Deputy Ministers, independent officials, Supreme Court judges, presidents of district courts and senior district judges may not be elected as Community Leaders or members of Community Councils, unless they resign their office or position before submitting their candidature.

A person who is a Member of the House of Representatives, a Member of the European Parliament, a Commissioner exercising his duties under a Law or contract, a president, vice-president or member of the board of directors of a public-law body or a legal person governed by public law, a permanent or temporary civil servant, a teacher or an employee of a municipality or community or body governed by public law, a person in an active police or military service, or a person holding a clerical position, may stand for election as community leader or member of the community council, but may not take up that office, unless, before his proclamation to the position in which he was elected, he resigns his office or position, as the case may be.

If during the term of office of a Community Leader or a member of the Council there is any of the impediments to eligibility or incompatibilities, the person concerned shall cease to be a Community Leader or a member of the Council, as the case may be. His post shall be vacated and filled following a by-election.

Submission of candidacy
The submission of the candidacy of every national and community national entitled to stand as a candidate shall take place in accordance with the provisions of sections 22 to 25 of the Law on Communities.

When submitting their candidacy, Citizens of European Union Member States, should also submit the following documents:
(a) A solemn declaration specifying the candidate’s nationality, the address of habitual residence in the Republic, the last address in the home Member State, the last electoral roll he was registered in the home Member State (where applicable), stating that the candidate has not been deprived of the right to stand as a candidate in the home Member State, that he does not have a status covered by the incompatibilities laid down in the Law, and the date from which he is a national of a Member State.

(b) A Cypriot identity card or a valid passport or identity card issued by the Member State of the community candidate’s nationality and/or a certificate of registration of a EU citizen concerning him.

Fee
For each candidacy a fee of €200 shall be paid for the office of Community Leader and €100 for the office of Member of the Community Council.
This amount shall be refunded to the list of candidates, the independent candidate or candidate Community Leader, and in the case of the death of a candidate the amount shall be refunded to his legal successors, if the vote does not proceed. In the event of a vote, the above amount shall be refunded in the event of election or if the candidate takes at least one third of the electoral threshold in the case of members of the Council or one fifth of the votes cast in the case of the Community Leader. Otherwise, the fee shall be confiscated and deposited with the National Fund of the Republic of Cyprus.