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Elections in Greece
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Greece |
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Elections in Greece gives information on election and election results in Greece.
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The Greek Parliament (Vouli ton Ellinon) has 300 members, elected for a four-year term by a system of reinforced proportional representation in 48 multi-seat constituencies, 8 single-seat constituencies and a single nationwide list. 288 of the 300 seats are determined by constituency voting, and voters may select the candidate or candidates of their choice by marking their name on the party ballot. The remaining 12 seats are filled from nationwide party lists on a top-down basis and based on the proportion of the total vote each party received.
Eligible for deputies are Greek citizens of 25 or over on the date of the election, who are eligible to vote
Under the current electoral law of "reinforced proportionallity", any single party must receive at least a 3% nationwide vote tally in order to elect Members of Parliament (the so-called "3% threshold"). The law in its current form favors the first past the post party to achieve an absolute (151 parliamentary seats) majority, provided it receives a 41%. This is touted to enhance governmental stability. The previous law (applied in the 2004 legislative elections) was even more favorable for the first party, since it needeed at least a roughly 1% tally advantage over the second one, in order to achieve an absolute (151 parliamentary seats) majority. The electoral law can be changed by simple parliamentary majority, but a law so changed only becomes enforced in the election following the upcoming one, unless a 2/3 parliamentary majority (200 or more votes) is achieved.
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All Greek citizens who are 18 or over on the date of the election are eligible to vote, provided they are on the electoral register, unless:
- they are imprisoned for a criminal offence and they have been expressly deprived of the right to vote with a judicial decision,
- they are mentally incapable of making a reasoned judgement, according to a judicial decision.
The Constitution provides after the amendment of 2001 for the right of Greek citizens living abroad to vote for the legislative elections. Nevertheless, no law implementing the constitutional provision has yet been passed.
Before 1910, Greece lacked a coherent party system in accordance with the traits of the modern representative democracy. The political formations of the 19th century lacked a steady organizational structure and a clear ideological orientation. Sometimes, they constituted just the incoherent and ephemeral escort of a prominent politician.
The first Greek parties with an ideologic background, conforming to the modern conception of a political party, appeared after 1910, when Eleftherios Venizelos rose to predominance in Greek political life and founded his Liberal Party. The liberal wave of Venizelism resulted soon in the reaction of the "old-system" political leaders, who formed the core of an opposing conservative movement , which used the monarchy as its main rallying banner. Thereby, the two biggest ideological movements, the republican centrist-liberal and the monarchist conservative, emerged and formed massive political organizations. The centrist and the conservative parties bitterly confronted each other in the ensuing legislative elections for many decades. After World War II and especially after the metapolitefsi of 1974, the leftist-socialist movement supplanted the centrists and took the main part of their electorate. Hence, the socialists constituted the new rival of the conservatives.
Nowadays, Greece has a two-party system, which means that there are two dominant political parties, the conservative New Democracy (ND) and the socialist PASOK, with extreme difficulty for anybody to achieve electoral success under the banner of any other party.
The left is mainly represented by The Greek Communist Party (KKE) and the Coalition of the Radical Left.
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- For more details on this topic, see Greek legislative election, 2004.
| Parties | Leaders | Votes | Seats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | +− % | No. | +− | |||
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New Democracy (Nea Dimokratia) | Costas Caramanlis | 3,359,058 | 45.4 | +2.7 | 165 | +39 |
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Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Panellinio Sosialistiko Kinima) | George Papandreou | 3,002,531 | 40.5 | -3.2 | 117 | −40 |
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Communist Party of Greece (Kommunistiko Komma Elladas) | Aleka Papariga | 436,573 | 5.9 | +0.4 | 12 | +1 |
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Coalition of the Radical Left (Synaspismos tis Rizospastikis Aristeras) | Alekos Alavanos | 241,539 | 3.3 | +0.1 | 6 | 0 |
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Popular Orthodox Rally (Laikos Orthodoxos Synagermos) | Georgios Karatzaferis | 162,103 | 2.2 | - | 0 | - |
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Democratic Social Movement (Dimokratiko Kinoniko Kinima) | Dimitris Tsovolas | 132,750 | 1.8 | -0.9 | 0 | - |
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Union of Centrists (Enosi Kentroon) | Vassilis Leventis | 19,531 | 0.3 | +0 | 0 | 0 |
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Radical Left Front (Metopo Rizospastikis Aristeras) | 11,261 | 0.2 | +0 | 0 | 0 | |
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Communist Party of Greece (Marxist-Leninist) ( Kommounistiko Komma Elladas (marxistiko-leninistiko)) | 10,764 | 0.2 | +0 | 0 | 0 | |
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Anti-Capitalist Coalition | 8,313 | 0.1 | - | 0 | - | |
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Hellenic Front (Elliniko Metopo) | Makis Voridis | 6,751 | 0.1 | - | 0 | - |
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Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Greece (Marxistiko-leninistiko Kommounistiko Komma Elladas) | 4,846 | 0.1 | +0 | 0 | 0 | |
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Militant Socialist Party of Greece | 3,180 | 0.0 | +0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Liberals Party (Greece) (Komma Fileleftherwn) | 2,658 | 0.0 | - | 0 | - | ||
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Organization for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Greece | 2,099 | 0.0 | +0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Others | 958 | 0.0 | +0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| No. of valid votes | 7,404,934 | 100,00 | 300 | ||||
| Invalid votes | 166,667 | ||||||
| Total | 7,571,601 (75.6%) |
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- Greek legislative election, 1865
- Greek legislative election, 1875 (4 June)
- Greek legislative election, 1885
- Greek legislative election, 1895 (May)
- Greek election, 1910
- Greek legislative election, 1910
- Greek legislative election, 1912
- Greek legislative election, 1915 (May)
- Greek legislative election, 1915 (December)
- Greek legislative election, 1920
- Greek legislative election, 1923
- Greek legislative election, 1926
- Greek legislative election, 1928
- Greek legislative election, 1932
- Greek legislative election, 1933
- Greek legislative election, 1935
- Greek legislative election, 1936
- Greek legislative election, 1946
- Greek legislative election, 1950
- Greek legislative election, 1951
- Greek legislative election, 1952
- Greek legislative election, 1956
- Greek legislative election, 1958
- Greek legislative election, 1961
- Greek legislative election, 1963
- Greek legislative election, 1964
- Greek legislative election, 1974
- Greek legislative election, 1977
- Greek legislative election, 1981
- Greek legislative election, 1985
- Greek legislative election, 1989 (June)
- Greek legislative election, 1989 (November)
- Greek legislative election, 1990
- Greek legislative election, 1993
- Greek legislative election, 1996
- Greek legislative election, 2000
The head of state - the President of the Hellenic Republic - is elected by Parliament for a five-year term, and a maximum of two terms in office. Eligible for President is any person who:
- has the Greek citizenship for at least 5 years,
- has a father or a mother of Greek origin,
- is 40 years old or more,
- is eligible to vote.
When a presidential term expires, Parliament votes to elect the new President. In the first two votes, a 2/3 majority (200 votes) is necessary. The third and final vote requires a 3/5 (180 votes) majority. If the third vote is fruitless, Parliament is dissolved and elections are proclaimed by the outgoing President within the next 30 days. In the new Parliament, the election for President is repeated immediately with a 3/5 majority required for the initial vote, an absolute majority (151 votes) for the second one and a simple majority for the third and final one. The system is so designed as to promote consensus Presidential candidates among the main political parties.
| From-To | President | Supported by | Elected in the |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 19, 1975 - May 15, 1980 | Constantine Tsatsos | |
first vote |
| May 15, 1980 - March 10, 1985 | Constantine Karamanlis | |
third vote |
| March 30, 1985 - May 4, 1990 | Christos Sartzetakis | |
third vote |
| May 4, 1990 - March 10, 1995 | Constantine Karamanlis | |
second vote (after elections) |
| March 10, 1995 - March 11, 2000 | Kostis Stephanopoulos |  |
third vote |
| March 11, 2000 - March 12, 2005 | Kostis Stephanopoulos | |
first vote |
| March 12, 2005 - March 13, 2010 | Karolos Papoulias | |
first vote |
Since 1984, Greece is represented with 24 MEPs in the European Parliament. These MEPs are elected every 5 years on the basis of a Party-list proportional representation electoral system. Especially for the European elections the whole country forms a single electoral area (constituency).
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European Union parliamentary elections
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| 1979 | Belgium · Denmark · France · Ireland · Italy · Luxembourg · Netherlands · United Kingdom · West Germany 1981: Greece |
| 1984 | Belgium · Denmark · France · Greece · Ireland · Italy · Luxembourg · Netherlands · United Kingdom · West Germany 1987: Portugal · Spain |
| 1989 | Belgium · Denmark · France · Greece · Ireland · Italy · Luxembourg · Portugal · Netherlands · Spain · United Kingdom · West Germany |
| 1994 | Belgium · Denmark · France · Germany · Greece · Ireland · Italy · Luxembourg · Portugal · Netherlands · Spain · United Kingdom 1995: Austria · Finland · Sweden |
| 1999 | Austria · Belgium · Denmark · Finland · France · Germany · Greece · Ireland · Italy · Luxembourg · Netherlands · Portugal · Spain · Sweden · United Kingdom |
| 2004 | Austria · Belgium · Cyprus · Czech Republic · Denmark · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Hungary · Ireland · Italy · Latvia · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Malta · Netherlands · Poland · Portugal · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain · Sweden · United Kingdom 2007: Bulgaria · Romania |
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Local elections elect super-prefects, prefects, and mayors for the country's 3 super-prefectures, 54 prefectures, 900 municipalities and approximately 135 communities. They also elect councillors to serve on the super-prefectural, prefectural, municipal and community councils.
According to the current voting system, the candidate who achieves more than 42 percent of the poll in the first round of voting is elected to the public office they were contesting, i.e. super-prefect, prefect, mayor (in a municipality) or president (in a community). If no candidate attains this percentage, a second round of voting takes place between the two poll-topping candidates from the first round. In elections at community level there is no second round. The 42 percent threshold was introduced in a legal reform of 2006. This electoral reform was proposed by New Democracy government and triggered the reaction of PASOK and other opposition parties. Previously, the threshold stood at 50 percent in the first round.
The first prefectural elections took place in 1994 (Law 2218/1994). Previously, prefects were appointed by the government. In both the municipal and the prefectural elections the leading party is entitled to at least the three-fifths in the respective councils.
Prefectural and municipal elections are held every four year, traditionally taking place in October. The last local elections took place on October 15, 2006.
- Greek local elections, 1974
- Greek local elections, 1978
- Greek local elections, 1982
- Greek local elections, 1986
- Greek local elections, 1990
- Greek local elections, 1994
- Greek local elections, 1998
- Greek local elections, 2002
- Greek local elections, 2006
All the plebiscites conducted in Greece from 1920 to 1974 had to do with the form of government, namely the retention/reestablishment or abolition of monarchy.
The last plebiscite of 1974 is deemed final and conclusive with regards to the matter of the head of the Greek state and the choice of the constitutional model of the parliamentary republic.
The current Constitution provides for two kinds of referendums:
- a referendum concerning a "passed law"
- a referendum concerning a matter of "national interest".
Nonetheless, these constitutional provisions have not yet been enacted.
- Greek plebiscite, 1920
- Greek plebiscite, 1924
- Greek plebiscite, 1935
- Greek plebiscite, 1946
- Greek plebiscite, 1974
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Greek Parliamentary elections
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