Elections in Greece

The center-right "New Democracy" is the big winner of the early parliamentary elections in Greece that were held yesterday. The party will form an independent government and rule for the next 4 years.

The 300 MPs elected on May 21 were sworn in Sunday afternoon.

The new Parliament, in which no party achieved an overall majority, will elect a Speaker and deputy speakers Monday. It will then be dissolved by presidential decree, either Monday or Tuesday, and new elections proclaimed, for June 25.

National elections on June 25 in Greece will be held under the system of "reinforced" proportional representation, which differs from proportional representation that the May 21 national ballot was held under, in that it allocates bonus seats in Parliament. 

Jailed former Golden Dawn deputy leader, Ilias Kasidiaris, announced on Thursday he would will attempt to run as an independent candidate in the second Greek general elections that will likely take place on June 25.

Elections in Greece and Turkey will take place at about the same time and, according to the most likely scenario, a second parliamentary election in Greece will take place on May 14, the same day Turkey will elect both its president and lawmakers.

The draft bill for Greece's new electoral law was submitted Monday to a parliamentary committee for debate, before being put to a vote in a plenary session on January 22.
Before this time, the committee will convene three times - Wednesday, Thursday and Monday.
The new law provides for bonus seats for the winning party.

In an historic vote on the proposed amendments to the Greek Constitution that will come to a final vote in the legislature after the next general election, Parliament approved in a landslide an amendment that will preclude its dissolution when there is a deadlock over the election by Parliament of the President of the Republic.

More than eight in 10 Greeks are unhappy with the government's performance, according to a new opinion poll which puts the conservative opposition New Democracy 14 percentage points ahead of leftist SYRIZA, which leads the ruling coalition.

Metron Analysis poll: New Democracy leads over SYRIZA by 3.7%

The election of Kyriakos Mitsotakis as the new leader of New Democracy seems to have brought a change to the party.

According to a recent poll conducted by Metron Analysis, the main opposition party leads the way while SYRIZA comes second.

The multi-bill on the second set of prior actions Greece needs to complete in order to receive the first part of its bailout loan passed in Parliament early on Friday morning with the votes of the coalition government of the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) and junior member Independent Greeks (ANEL). The rest of the parties voted against it.