Greek lawmakers fail to elect new president in first round

Greek lawmakers fail to elect new president in first round

PanARMENIAN.Net - Greek lawmakers failed to elect a new president in a first round of voting on Wednesday, Dec 17, leaving Prime Minister Antonis Samaras still looking for as many as 20 votes from independents and small parties to avoid snap national elections early next year, Reuters reported.

With two more rounds still to come, a win for the government had not been expected on Wednesday but the result was below many expectations, just meeting the minimum threshold officials had seen as adequate before the vote.

Of the 300 members of parliament, 160 voted in favor of the government's candidate Stavros Dimas with 135 against and five absent, short of the 200-vote supermajority needed to elect a president in the first round.

The head of state is a largely ceremonial post but failure to elect a president with a three-fifths majority in parliament triggers early elections.

Polls suggest they would be won by the leftist Syriza party, which promises to renegotiate the international bailout accord Greece still needs to keep its finances afloat.

A second round of voting will be held on Dec 23 and a possible final round on Dec 29, when the threshold needed for victory falls to 180.

Costas Panagopoulos, a political analyst who heads the ALCO polling institute, said the result pointed to a period of intense backroom horsetrading between the government and independent deputies.

Polls suggest that most Greek voters, weary after years of austerity, do not want early elections just as their battered economy is showing signs of revival.

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