OPINION

Elections 2015 | Facts & Figures

Voter population

There will be 26,210 fewer voters casting their ballot in the January 25 general elections compared to the 2009 polls, while one-fifth of the Greek electorate is aged over 71 years old and is not legally obliged to vote. The largest number of Greek voters are in the 42-47 age group, with 1,003,743 individuals between these ages registered on the official electoral lists.

On January 25 a total of 9,808,760 people will be called up to vote, the majority of whom (5,060,877) are women. In the general elections of 2009 Greece had 9,834,970 registered voters and in the local and European Parliament elections of 2012 it had 9,850,802. This year’s turnout is expected to be smaller due to the fact that thousands of voters who live outside their districts did not have time to transfer their papers to their place of residence.

There will be 273,941 newly registered voters casting their ballots on January 25, of whom 224,272 are aged 18-21. The rest are new citizens who were only recently issued state identification cards and registered on the electoral lists.

The electoral region with the largest population of voters is the Second District of Athens (1,428,759), followed by the First District of Thessaloniki (512,768), the capital’s First District (476,183) and the rest of Attica (459,444).

Election budgets

Political parties that made it into Parliament in the twin elections of 2012 and are running again this year will be receiving a combined total of 4,036,000 euros in 2015, split according to the number of deputies they have and 50 percent of which will be paid upfront.

New Democracy, which holds the largest number of seats in the 300-seat House, will receive a total of 636,555 euros. Main opposition SYRIZA will get 577,110 euros and governing coalition partner PASOK, which came in third place in 2012, will receive 263,632 euros. The other parties’ election budgets will be as follows: Independent Greeks, 161,242 euros; Golden Dawn, 148,555 euros; Democratic Left, 134,239 euros; and the Greek Communist Party (KKE), 96,664 euros.

Parties whose members were elected to the European Parliament in the May 2014 elections will share 10 percent of the total election budget, or 403,600 euros. SYRIZA, which elected the most Euro MPs in May, will get 129,352 euros, followed by New Democracy with 110,659, PASOK – Olive Tree Alliance with 39,060, To Potami with 32,172 euros, KKE with 29,761 euros and Independent Greeks with 16,853.

The budget for these elections has been trimmed by 10 percent compared to May 2012.

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