Corporate Donations in Cyprus: Property and Construction Take the Lead

Between 2016 and 2021, property development and construction companies stood out as the primary corporate donors to political parties across Cyprus, according to an analysis by the Audit Office. These two sectors collectively contributed about 25.52% of the total recorded contributions exceeding €1,000.

This trend was evident across nearly all major political parties, except for the Greens. Contributions from these industries signal a broad political reach and underline how property development can influence the island’s political funding.

A Breakdown of Corporate Donations by Sector

Alongside property and construction, several other industries played significant roles in political financing:

• Trade and manufacturing: 15.52%
• Investment management and consultancy: 9.35%
• Financial services: 6.02%
• Investment activities: 4.71%
• Accounting and tax services: 4.65%
• Alcohol production and distribution: 4.39%
• Shipping: 2.95%
• Technology and information systems: 2.92%
• Gaming and lottery: 2.85%
• Mining: 2.69%
• Energy: 2.28%

Subsequent donations came from general services (2.10%), hospitality (1.93%), renewable energy (1.5%), tourism (0.62%), management services (0.51%), betting (0.22%), education (0.18%), and real estate services (0.07%).

Donation Patterns Across Political Parties

The same analysis revealed distinct donation preferences for each party:

• Democratic Rally (DISY): Relied on development and construction for 23.55% of its contributions.
• AKEL (Communist Party): Trade and manufacturing represented 30.66% of corporate donations.
• Democratic Party (DIKO): Along with the far-right ELAM, property and construction made up 29.97% for DIKO, while ELAM received 74.07% from this sector.
• EDEK (Socialist Party): Shipping emerged as its top donor category at 30.12%.
• DIPA (Centre-right): Recorded its highest share (37.82%) from development and construction firms.
• Movement of Ecologists-Citizens’ Cooperation (Greens): Skipped property and construction entirely, with gaming and lottery accounting for 36.20% of the party’s funding from corporations.

The Audit Office utilized official records from party donation registries and cross-referenced them with data from the Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property, alongside other online sources. This comprehensive approach offers an in-depth look at the strong sway of property-related industries on Cyprus’s political fundraising.

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