The 2014–2015 presidential election in Greece : the first round was held on December 17, 2014 [1] [2] , the second round was held on December 23 , the third round was held on December 29 [3] . The parliament, formed in June 2012 , could not elect a president in December 2014 and was dissolved. Therefore, new snap parliamentary elections were scheduled for January 25, 2015 [4] . After the election of the new parliament in January 2015, the presidential election will continue, and then for the election of a new presidential candidate it will be enough to gain a simple majority of 151 votes in parliament. The fourth round of the presidential election was held on February 18, 2015 [5] .
| ← 2010 | |||
| Presidential Election in Greece | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 December 17 (first round) December 23 (second round) December 29 (third round) 2015 February 18 (fourth round) | |||
Content
Context
The president is elected by the Greek parliament . The five-year term of office of the current President of Greece, Carolos Papoulias, should expire on March 13, 2015 , when his second term as president ends and, according to the Greek constitution , he cannot be re-elected for a third term. Voting is conducted secretly. To be elected, a candidate for the presidency will need the support of at least 180 members of parliament. And if the candidate for president does not manage to get 180 votes of the legislators, then they will have to announce early parliamentary elections, after which the new legislative body will be able to approve the candidate by a simple majority of 151 votes [6] .
According to the original plan, presidential elections were to be held in February 2015 . But the opposition’s actions, requiring early parliamentary elections [6] are primarily the SYRIZA coalition, which supported the general strikes at the end of November 2014 against austerity measures [7] [8] , which are the result of the debt crisis that has continued in Greece since 2010 year , led to the fact that the Greek Prime Minister (leader of the party " New democracy "), Antonis Samaras and Deputy Prime Minister (leader of the PASOK ) Evangelos Venizelos , informing of his decision to the President of Greece, addressed to the Chairman of the Parliament asking how we can a rather start presidential election procedure and appoint a vote of December 17, 2014 the year [1] .
Candidates
The only candidate in 2014 in the first, second and third rounds was the seventy-three-year-old Stavros Dimas .
Voting and Results
First Round
December 17, 2014 the first round of elections was held. Stavros Dimas received 160 votes of deputies (155 from the ruling coalition consisting of the New Democracy and the PASOK party, and 5 from independent deputies). To be elected in the first round, a candidate needs to enlist the support of at least 200 parliamentarians. The second round will be held on December 23. If the candidate does not receive 200 votes in the second round, a third vote will be appointed. It will be held on December 29, and the presidential candidate will need to enlist the support of 180 deputies, otherwise the parliament will be dissolved and early elections announced [2] .
Second Round
December 23, 2014 the second round of elections was held. Greek presidential candidate Stavros Dimas was again unable to get the majority of votes in parliament, so the Greek parliament will hold the third round of presidential elections on December 29. The candidate scored 168 votes - eight more votes than in the first round, but he needed 200 [3] .
Third Round
According to the results of the third round, held on December 29, 2014, Stavros Dimas received 168 votes with the required 180. Thus, the parliament failed to elect the president and was dissolved on December 29 [9] . The new parliamentary elections were held on January 25. After the election, the parliament will need an ordinary majority of 151 votes to elect a president. [4]
Round Four
On February 18, 2015, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras proposed the candidacy of a politician from the New Democracy (center-right) party Prokopis Pavlopoulos for the presidency of the country [10] . On the same day, Prokopis Pavlopoulos was elected President of Greece [5] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Greek presidential elections will begin on December 17. // " RIA Novosti ".
- ↑ 1 2 The Greek Parliament could not elect a president in the first round of voting.
- ↑ 1 2 The Greek Parliament did not elect a president on the second attempt.
- ↑ 1 2 Greece: the new parliament will elect the president // Euronews .
- ↑ 1 2 The Greek Parliament elected Prokopis Pavlopoulos as president of the country.
- ↑ 1 2 Early presidential elections in Greece should prevent the opposition from holding parliamentary elections. // " TASS ".
- ↑ The general strike of transport workers paralyzed Greece. // " Euronews ."
- ↑ Greece: strike against austerity measures. // " Euronews ."
- ↑ Europeans are afraid of the election results in Greece.
- ↑ Prokopis Pavlopoulos was nominated as president of Greece.