The Greeks return to the polls for the second round

As a result of the general elections held on May 21 after 4 years in Greece, voters will go to the polls tomorrow for the second time, as established by the constitution, after the government could not be formed.

According to the result of the polls on May 21, the New Democracy Party, which ruled the country alone in the period 2019-2023, came out first, but was unable to reach the 151 seats needed to come to power alone due to the new electoral system. .

New Democracy’s 40.79 percent of the vote enabled the party to send 146 deputies to the 300-seat parliament. Radical Left Alliance (SYRIZA), the main opposition party for the period 2019-2023, followed New Democracy with 20.07% of the vote and 71 deputies.

The center-left Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which has been New Democracy’s number one rival for decades but whose vote rate fell during the economic crisis, partially regained lost power and came in third with 11, 46 percent of the votes. and 41 deputies.

The Greek Communist Party (KKE), one of the ossified parties in the Greek Parliament, won the right to representation in parliament with 7.23 percent of the vote and 26 deputies, while the Greek Solution Party, known Due to his extreme right-wing attitude, he won the right to representation in Parliament with 4.45 percent of the votes and 16 deputies. The number of parties that have passed the 3 percent electoral threshold and qualified to enter parliament has become 5.

NEW ELECTION SYSTEM

Under the electoral system implemented for the first time this year in Greece, the first party to leave the polls does not get additional parliamentary seats, but if a government cannot be formed, when the first party goes to the polls for the second time , an additional 20 to 50 MPs are awarded in the 300-seat parliament, depending on the voting rate, as long as the first party wins at least 25% of the vote.

Thus, an attempt is made to overcome the deadlock in the search for a coalition with the support given to the first party.

In the general elections held in the country on May 21, while no party had the vote rate to come to power alone, New Democracy lost this opportunity with only 5 seats, leading to the second round.

New Democracy leader Kiryakos Mitsotakis, in his statement just after the election, interpreted the polls to mean that the people want a strong government that comes to power alone rather than a coalition. The bureaucratic process for coalition work was completed, but the leaders did not actually make any effort to form a coalition.

The fact that New Democracy will not favor any coalition and will aim for additional seats to be awarded at the second chance at the polls has turned coalition work into a technical process that only has to be overcome.

WHAT DOES THE SURVEY SAY?

According to the poll commissioned by the research company Pulse for SKAI TV, the difference between New Democracy and SYRIZA is 19.5 percent. In the poll commissioned by the research company ALCO on behalf of Alpha TV, the difference between New Democracy and SYRIZA is 21.1 percent. According to the survey, New Democracy leaves the polls with 39.5 percent of the vote, while SYRIZA, which follows immediately behind, has 18.4 percent of the vote.

The PASOK-KINAL Alliance, which appears to be third in all polls, is aiming to rise to the main opposition by regaining the center-left votes it lost to SYRIZA during the economic crisis, even though it has around 10 percent of the vote.

According to the court decision, 26 political parties, 4 party alliances and 2 independent candidates were allowed to participate in the June 25 elections.

9 million 813 thousand 595 voters registered in the electoral roll will cast their vote in 21 thousand 634 polling stations throughout the country on June 25. (AA)