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An indirect presidential election were held in Greece on Wednesday 22 January 2020 for the President of the Hellenic Republic. Incumbent President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who was elected by the Hellenic Parliament on 18 February 2015, was eligible for re-election but was not suggested by the government.
Katerina Sakellaropoulou won the election with 261 votes. She was elected as the 13th and first female President of Greece. [1]
The election procedure was held on Wednesday 22 January 2020.
According to Article 32 the Constitution of Greece, the head of state is elected for a five-year term by the Hellenic Parliament in a special session at least a month before the incumbent's term expires. The first and second rounds require a super majority of 200 out of the 300-strong body, dropping to 180 on the third.
In the event of a non-election even after the third ballot, the parliament is to be dissolved and a snap election to be called within ten days. After reconvening, the new parliament holds a maximum of three further rounds of voting, with the required majority at 180 votes in the fourth and a simple majority of 151 votes in the fifth round. A sixth and last round would be contested between the two candidates with the most votes and decided by a relative majority.
However, on 25 November 2019 after a constitutional amendment, the parliament decided the dissolution of snap elections when the president is not elected in the first 3 ballots. That means the Article 32, Paragraph 4 of the Greek Constitution which says about the election of the President has changed and the new reform of the paragraph is: If after 3 ballots the president is not elected, the 4th ballot will be to 151 votes and the 5th and last ballot would be contested between the two candidates with the most votes and decided by a relative majority. That means the 6th ballot is removed[ citation needed ].
In afternoon of Wednesday 15 January 2020, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that the government would suggest Katerina Sakellaropoulou for the presidency, who had been President of the Council of State since 2018. [2]
The next day, both SYRIZA [3] and KINAL [4] backed her candidacy. MeRA25 announced that they would not support Sakellaropoulou and suggested their own candidate, Magda Fissa. She is known as the mother of rapper Pavlos Fissas, who was murdered by supporters of the Golden Dawn in 2013. Later that night, Fissa stated that she had not been informed of the proposal by the Secretary-General of MeRA25, Yanis Varoufakis, and she later declined the offer, meaning that she would not be a candidate for the post. [5]
On the morning of Wednesday 22 January 2020, the parliament elected Katerina Sakellaropoulou as 13th President of Greece with 261 votes. 33 MPs voted "present" and 6 MPs were absent. [6]
MPs from New Democracy, SYRIZA and KINAL voted in favor, while MPs from KKE, Greek Solution and MeRA25 voted present.
Votes | Results 22 January 2020 |
---|---|
Katerina Sakellaropoulou (Independent) | 261 |
Abstentions | 33 |
Absents | 6 |
Total | 300 |
Votes required | 200 |
The president of Greece, officially the President of the Hellenic Republic, commonly referred to in Greek as the President of the Republic, is the head of state of Greece. The president is elected by the Hellenic Parliament; the role has been mainly ceremonial since the 1986 constitutional reform. The office was formally established by the Constitution of Greece in 1975, but has antecedents in the Second Hellenic Republic of 1924–1935 and the Greek junta in 1973–1974 which predated the transition to the current Third Hellenic Republic. The incumbent, since 13 March 2020, is Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
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The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance, best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA, is a centre-left to left-wing political party in Greece. It was founded in 2004 as a political coalition of left-wing and radical left parties, and registered as a political party in 2012.
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