Electoral law bill submitted to Parliament

The draft bill for Greece’s new electoral law was submitted Monday to a parliamentary committee for debate, before being put to a vote in a plenary session on January 22.

Before this time, the committee will convene three times – Wednesday, Thursday and Monday.

The new law provides for bonus seats for the winning party.

More specifically, if the winning party receives 25 percent of the vote it will get a bonus of 20 seats, and an additional seat for every additional half a percentage point.

If it wins more than 40 percent, then it will receive a maximum of 50 bonus seats.

The new law will require an enhanced majority of 200 in the 300-seat Parliament for it to be implemented by the next election. Otherwise the simple proportional system will apply and the new law will apply in the elections after the next.

Moreover, changes also stipulate that four votes will be required to elect the country’s next president, who will replace incumbent Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

Given that Pavlopoulos’ term ends on March 12, the parliamentary procedure to elect his replacement should begin at least a month earlier.

As a result, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will have to announce the government’s proposed candidate in a time period stretching between the adoption of the electoral law and the first 10 days of February.

Mitsotakis will be in Davos from January 22-24, followed by a trip to Auschwitz, before heading for Paris on January 29 to meet French President Emmanuel Macron.

Pundits speculate that he will most likely announce his presidential candidate in the period leading up to his Paris visit.

In the meantime, he continues to keep his cards close to his chest regarding his preferred candidate and the timing of his announcement.