Abstention

Postal voting, if it works properly, will go some way towards curbing the problem of rising abstention that should concern everyone, regardless of party affiliation.

At the same time, it is a long-standing request of diaspora Greeks and a measure that has been applied in almost all modern democracies.

Former premier Antonis Samaras has indicated that he will vote against a bill legalizing same-sex marriage when it comes before parliament, thus appearing to reject a proposal of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that government MPs who disagree with the measure abstain in the relevant parliamentary vote.

The lawyers' abstention has been extended until January 19 after a decision of the plenary session of the country's bar associations with a vote of 46-12, with the minority voting in favor of a complete abstention from all proceedings. 

Accordingly, lawyers will refrain from criminal trials, as well as those pertaining to public interest, enforcement of rulings and payment orders.

The debate on the postal vote for Greeks living abroad was an undertaking that embarrassed the political system, which, in the previous parliamentary period, could not agree on the obvious solution.

The highest abstention rate in a Greek national election was set on Sunday, reaching 47.17%, surpassing the previous record set in the September 2015 election, when it reached 43.84%.

Voter turnout hit an historic low in Sunday's election, with 47.18% of voters opting to stay away from the ballot box, the highest abstention rate since the fall of the military junta in 1974, if not before.

The long pre-election period and the clear result of the May 21 ballot may have created a sense that Sunday's vote is something of a formality. This is far from the case. 

In fact, this election is more important than the last one because it will determine whether the country will have a government for the next four years and how it will be governed. 

With the election just days away, New Democracy is seeking the crucial 40% threshold that would secure a safe outright majority to form a single-party government.

With the election race entering the final stretch, political party staff have turned their attention to the race for the so-called new undecided voters - which, according to the latest polls, amount to roughly 7%-8% of the total - and to those who may abstain altogether.

The growing frustration with politics felt by most Greeks will be expressed in the upcoming elections with an increase in abstention and a tendency to reject systemic parties and strengthen fringe formations - phenomena that will make it more difficult to govern, while also affecting the legitimacy of any government.