Second Greek election will be held under different electoral system
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.
The number of bonus seats is not fixed but depends on the first party’ final percentage of votes, using a sliding scale. If, for example, the first party gets 25% the bonus is 20 seats, while the remaining 280 seats (Greek parliament has 300 MPs total) are distributed proportionally between the parties that made it into Parliament by reaching – or surpassing the 3% threshold. For every additional 0.5% thereof the bonus increases by one seat and the other parties’ seats are reduced accordingly. Therefore, the absolute maximum of 50 bonus seats secures the first party with a percentage of approximately 40%, which is the percentage New Democracy received in the May 21 elections.
However, a single-party government depends not only on the first party’ percentage but is also affected by the percentage received cumulatively by the parties which do not reach (or surpass) the 3% threshold, namely those that will be left out of parliament: more parties left out means the maximum percentage required for a single-party government drops. Conversely, more parties managing to elect MPs into parliament means the first party will require a higher percentage to reach the desired absolute majority, making it harder to govern without seeking a coalition.
Experts who spoke to state-run news agency AMNA said that with a five-party parliament an outright majority is secured with a percentage of around 37.5%, while a six-party parliament raises the bar to around 38.4%, and with a seven-party parliament it goes up to 39.3%.
Another key point to bear in mind in the second elections on June 25 candidates are not explicitly selected by the voter with the cross inked left or right of their names on the ballot list. Instead, parties are likely to list their ballot candidates in a descending order, corresponding to their May 21 electoral performance at each constituency. Voters will simply select a party list.
The date of June 25 for Greece’s new elections was proposed by New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis right after his party finished first in the previous vote but failed to secure the majority it required to form a government. ND’s performance encouraged him to seek a new vote instead of seeking to form a coalition with another party, hoping to clinch the required majority.
The date is expected to be announced officially next week, after the new parliament is sworn-in on Sunday and is dissolved on Monday, per the Greek constitution.
[AMNA, Kathimerini]
