Dimitris Christofias
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| Born | 29 August 1946 Dikomo, Cyprus |
|---|---|
| Office | President of the House of Representatives |
| Political party | AKEL |
| Religion | Christian |
| Children | 2 daugters, 1 son |
| Spouse | Elsie Chiratou |
Dimitris Christofias (Greek: Δημήτρης Χριστόφιας) is a Cypriot politician who is General Secretary President of House of Representatives (Cypriot Parliament).
He was born on August 29, 1946, in Dikomo, Kyrenia District. Christofias became involved in leftist politics early in his youth and held several positions with the youth movement of AKEL. He studied in Moscow where he met his wife, Elsie Chiratou, returning to Cyprus and political life. His father, who died in 1987, was a progressive builder, member of the Pancyprian Federation of Labour (PEO).
During his secondary-school education at Nicosia Commercial Lyceum, from where he graduated in 1964, he used to work during his summer holidays with his father and thus from an early age he got acquainted with the hardships of the working class.
At the age of 14, he joined the progressive secondary-school students’ organisation PEOM and at the age of 18 he joined EDON (AKEL's United Democratic Youth Organisation), PEO Trade Unions and AKEL (the Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus). In 1969, at the 5th Congress of E.D.O.N., he was elected member of the Central Council.
Demetris Christofias studied at the Institute of Social Sciences and the Academy of Social Sciences in Moscow from 1969 to 1974 and he got the Diploma and degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History (Ph.D.History).
In 1974 he was elected to the post of the Central Organising Secretary of EDON and in 1977 of General Secretary. At this post he served till 1987.
In 1976 he was elected member of the Nicosia-Kyrenia District Committee of AKEL, and in 1982 – at the 15th Congress of AKEL – he was elected member of the Central Committee of the Party.
In July 1986 he was elected alternate member of the Political Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL. After the 16th Congress of AKEL, held in November 1986, he was elected full member of the P.B. of C.C. AKEL and in 1987 (after terminating his service as General Secretary of EDON) he was elected member of the Secretariat of C.C. AKEL. In April 1988, following the death of Ezekias Papaioannou, he was elected General Secretary of the C.C. AKEL, a post he still holds.
Demetris Christofias was elected Member of the House of Representatives for the first time in 1991 (Kyrenia District) and was re-elected in the subsequent Parliamentary Elections of 1996 and 2001. On the 7th of June 2001 he is elected President of the House of Representatives. He was re-elected as president of the House of Representatives in 2006. In his function of General Secretary of the C.C. AKEL and President of the House of Representatives, he is a Member of the National Council, a supreme advisory body to the President of the Republic.
He is ex officio chairman of the House Standing Committee on Selection and chairman of the Ad Hoc House Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and of the Special House Standing Committee on Declaration and Examination of Property.
He is also president of the executive committees of the Cyprus Group to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (I.P.U.) and of the Cyprus Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (C.P.A.).
Demetris Christofias is married to Elsie (Chiratou) Christofias (1972) and they have three children – two daughters, Marianna and Christina, and a son, Christos.
