Christos Aidonis

Greek MPs are to vote Tuesday in the second ballot of a three-phase presidential election amid a growing political crisis that has been sharpened by the bribery allegations of Independent Greeks MP Pavlos Haikalis and a slew of threats and counter-threats in Parliament.

The first of possibly three presidential ballots will take place on Wednesday evening, with the government expecting its candidate, Stavros Dimas, to receive at least 161 of 300 MPs’ votes, which will be well short of the 200 needed to be elected but a basis for the coalition to work from for the final ballot on December 29, when 180 votes will be required.

Speculation about the government's prospects for achieving the 180-seat super-majority needed to elect a president peaked on Friday after several independent and opposition MPs indicated that they would be willing to back the coalition's candidate, thus contributing toward averting snap polls.

Andreas Loverdos, a former minister and Socialist heavyweight, on Tuesday said he intends to return to the fold of PASOK after leaving the party to form his own movement, RIKKSY, in December 2012, despite statements last year flatly rejecting the idea.

Parliament passed the government’s 2015-18 Medium Term Fiscal Strategy (MTFS) on Friday as New Democracy and SYRIZA ratcheted up the intensity of their pre-election war of words.