The first round of voting for Greece’s next President is taking place in the Parliament. 300 lawmakers will be asked to vote in a roll call either for sole candidate “Stavros Dimas” or “Present“. MPs do not have the option to say “No”. Just the name of the candidate or Present.
The Parliament Speaker will call the name of each MP and he/she will stand up and loud express his/her preference.
In the first round of voting, the Presidential candidate needs 200 votes to be elected.
Stavros Dimas, a candidate proposed by Coalition government Nea Dimokratia and PASOK has hardly chances to collect the necessary votes. However, the outcome of the voting today can be indicative for the outcome of the most important round, ie. the third round on 29. December, when Dimas will need only 180 votes.
Voting schedule for Greece’s next President.
The voting takes place in three rounds.
1) 17. Dec 1. voting 200 vote needed
2) 23. Dec 2. voting 200 votes needed
3) 29. Dec 3. voting 180 votes needed
Should the Parliament fail to elect the President, it has to be dissolved in 10 days and snap elections have to take place.
According to Greek media, snap polls could take place on 25. January or 1. February 2015.
Nea Dimokratia and PASOK have together 155 seats (votes) in a parliament of 300.
Whether all MPs are present or not, the number of votes needed today is 200.
Greece’s coalition government hopes to get some votes from the 24 independent MPs.
At least 6 independent MPs have declared that they would vote in favor of Stavros Dimas., while an equal number of independent MPs have said they would down vote ND-PASOK candidate and the rest is keeping their cards closed.
Some scenarios claim that some MPs from center-left Democratic Left and nationalist Independent Greeks may also vote for Dimas, despite that the parties lines is for down voting.
Main opposition parties, left-wing SYRIZA, communist KKE and extreme-righ Golden Dawn will not vote in favor for Dimas.
Should Dimas get 160 votes or below this will be a defeat for the coalition government. But should he get 170 votes chances a high that he could be elected in the third voting.
According to Greek media, the government estimates that Dimas will get some 161-162 votes and under certain circumstance 165.
Live blog begins here at 7 pm local time
07:13 pm
Procedure started. Parliament Speaker Evangelos Meimarakis is reading the statute of the voting.
The votinig will last 40 minutes.
07:14 pm
Voting started
07:17 pm
The MPs’ names are called according to election area.
07:22 pm
Athens area:
Stavros Dimas: 31 Present 38 Inalid 0
07:26 pm
by 134 votes
Stavros Dimas: 66 Present 68 Inalid 0
07:25 pm
by 150 votes
Stavros Dimas: 77 Present 73 Inalid 0
07:31 pm
Stavros Dimas: 107 Present 95 Inalid 0
07:35 pm
Stavros Dimas: 121 Present 106 Inalid 0
PM Antonis Samaras voted in favor of Stavros Dimas 🙂
07: 36 pm
two former ND (Polydoras, Melas) MPs, now independent, did not vote in favor of Dimas.
Melas had recenlty left Independent Greeks party after he disagree with chairman Panos Kammenos on the presidency vote. At the very end he voted against Dimas, certainly dissapointing ND and PM Samaras.
07:38 pm
Stavros Dimas: 147 Present 130 Inalid 0
The number of Present is dangerously high. Opposition parties have 121 votes.
Of course, no MPs from Nea Dimokratia or PASOK dared to down vote Dimas and risk to be expelled from the party
07:40 pm
Voting concluded
Stavros Dimas: 160 (ND, PASOK + 5 Independent MPs)
Present: 135 (SYRIZA, KKE, IndependentGreeks, Golden Dawn, Democratic Left)
5 MPs were absent. One of them for important family reason but the four… had apparently no excuse This can have a meaning and send a political message…
The pro Dimas votes are certainly below the coalition government expectations. ND-PASOK were estimating to receive 165 votes for Stavros Dimas.
What is clear from this result is that Dimas cannot be elected with the votes of one independent MP here, one independent MP there.Consensus from the political parties is due. But as Dimas is a member of Nea Dimokratia, the government can hardly achieve consensus.
SYRIZA said that snap elections are imminent.
Independent Greeks chairman Kammenos stated short after the voting that “the effort to terrorize MPs have failed.”
PM Samaras said “Times are difficult for the country” and said he was confident for the third round. He did nto answer reporters’ questions about the voting outcome.
SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras: “Democracy cannot be blackmailed”
Now ND and PASOK have 5 days to convince more MPs.
The 2. round of voting will take place ατ 12 ο’ clock noon 23. December 2014.
Scenarios
Scenario I
A scenario has been making the rounds in the last hours: ND, PASOK and SYRIZA give consent to the President candidate and the coalition government agrees to go to parliamentary elections in 2015. ND-PASOK government term ends in June 2016.
Scenario II
Another candidate is possible for the 3. round of voting. Because “what’s the point of going to the third round, if also the second would not bring more than 161-162?” say some government MPs, most likely form PASOK.
More on the presidential election procedure, Samaras’ political suicide?, Fear-mongering campaign, Stournaras’ warning
Live blogigng from Athens has concluded.
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