From today the country is entering the final phase of the pre-election campaign and all political leaders are preparing for the debates tonight. After the names of the parliament member candidates are out, the voters can now see the future staff of each party. PM Kostas Karamanlis bet on a combination between experience and fresh member and PASOK leader Georgios Papandreou bet on completely new people – he preferred to give the opportunity to figures, who have proven themselves as professionals in their sectors. At 08:00PM tonight will be the debate between the six leaders – the rules have been set and the only thing which is unclear until now is the participation of the far right party LAOS leader Georgios Karadzaferis.
The double-party model exists in Greece—in other words the governments form from either of the two big parties – New Democracy or PASOK. The opinions on this subject are different – does power monopolize by the two parties or the opposite – this creates a more stable political environment.
Practically, taking power by PASOK or New Democracy happens, because whichever party wins the electoral majority gets a bonus of 40 parliament seats. This allows the party to reach a majority in the parliament with which it can create one-party government. Let us get to know the political system in the country, the election procedure and the way parliament seats are distributed.
In Greece the constitution is the highest law, which defines the form of government and the main rules for its management. The Constitution has been voted for by the Great National Assembly on June 11, 1975 and it has been revised twice – in 1986 and 2001.
Greece is a parliament republic and the Prime Minister and all ministers are at the top of the executive power and the government, which is created by the party, which has majority in the parliament. Due to the specifics of the political system, it has been proven that it has passed successfully through the different political crisis. This is due to the fact that it is based on an institutional framework, which guarantees stable governance through change in power. The main governing principal is public power through its representatives in the parliament, power of the laws, social state, equality, human rights and freedom.
According to the Constitution, the power is divided into legislative, executive, judicial and local governing. The legislative power is enacted in the parliament, which is the highest legislature body and it creates the laws, which are promulgated by the president. The parliament consist of 300 members, who are chosen by direct, common, secret and mandatory elections and all citizens allowed to vote take part in them. Parliament is being chosen every four years.
The Greek political scene is taken over by the presence of two big parties – the socialists PASOK, which was created in 1974 by Andreas Papandreou and won the elections for the last time in April 2000 and the governing right now conservative party New Democracy, which was created in 1974 by Konstantinos Karamanlis and is the biggest right party. The other parties presented at the last National Assembly are the Greek Communist Party, which was created in 1918 and is the oldest party in the parliament (leader – Aleka Papariga), LAOS – far right party created in 2000 by Georgios Karadzaferis who seceded from New Democracy and SIRIZA, which is a coalition unity of the left parties and was created in 2004.
According to research from the last two weeks the Greek communist party and the right LAOS have the best chances from the smallest parties. For LAOS this is an expected turn, because experience of the other European countries shows that in time of crisis voters seek for stability in the promises of the far right parties. The fall in trust for SIRIZA was expected, because the party is going through some serious inner problems and as a result it was left without a leader. During the past few months a new party started gaining popularity – the party of the ecologists, which for now is going through some peak moments and falls but as it seems, it might overcome the border of 3% and thus enter the parliament.
A very important role in the country has the president, who together with the government is holding the executive power and who is chosen every five years. The current president of Greece Karolos Papoulyas was offered for this position by PM Kostas Karamanlis in 2004. The power of the president was very limited during the constitution revision in 1986. Some of the responsibilities of the PM are keeping entity of the government, which consists of 16 ministers with their deputies, to give direction to the public sector for applying the government policy. The Greek governing system puts the PM in the center of all decisions.
According to the Greek electoral system the parliament member’s seat are distributed between the parties, coalitions and independent candidates in relation of how many votes they have gotten in the election. The working system now combines elements of the majority and proportional systems. 300 parliament members participate in the parliament, out of whom 288 are appointed by the 57 electoral regions and the other 12 come from the list from all over the country and are called public parliament members.
According to the law of elections, in order for a party to enter the parliament, it needs to gather at least 3% of the valid bulletins. 260 out of 300 parliament member seats are distributed based on the proportionate system and the other 40 are given to the party, which gather the most votes independently of its percentage or its difference with the runner-up. This rule, which is an element of the majority system, was approved in order to ensure a stable parliament majority, so that the first party can create its own government.
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