In the June elections, the enhanced proportionality electoral law will be implemented, which restores the seat bonus to the first party. Its difference with the 2007 election bonus and from 2012 to 2019 is that it is not fixed but scaled, depending on the percentage of the first party.

If it gets 25% the bonus is 20 seats, while the remaining 280 seats are distributed proportionally between the parties that entered the Parliament. For every additional 0.5%, the bonus increases by one seat (and the other parties’ seats are reduced accordingly), with a maximum of 30 seats. Well, the upper limit of 50 bonus seats ensures the first party with a percentage of 40%, as the ND received in the recent elections.

Self-reliance does not only depend on the percentage of the first party but also in combination with the percentage that the parties that do not reach the 3% limit will receive cumulatively. The higher the percentage of parties that will be left out of Parliament, the lower the bar of self-reliance. Conversely, the more parties in parliament (so the lower the percentage for the other combinations), the higher the minimum percentage for the first. As experts at APE-MPE reported, with a five-party Parliament, self-reliance is ensured with a percentage of around 37.5%, with a six-party parliament the bar rises to around 38.4% and with a seven-party parliament at 39.3%.

List elections

The upcoming elections also differ from those of May 21 in the way candidates are elected. They will take place with a restricted combination (list), as they will be re-announced in less than 18 months from the previous ones. With this procedure, MPs are not elected by preference cross but in order on the ballot of each electoral district, as is the case with State MPs.

Obviously, party staffs and political leaders will draw up the ballot lists taking into account the ranking order of MPs in recent elections, although they are not bound by electoral law to do so. That is, they have the right to include candidates even if they were not elected in the May 21 election and to exclude from the ballots or rank lower on the list candidates who were elected in the recent election process.

How non-citizens and foreign residents vote

The upcoming parliamentary elections will be held based on the electoral lists that were valid in the last elections as well, as they were finalized after the first revision of 2023, and include all the changes made up to February 28, 2023.

As far as non-residents are concerned, this means that they cannot vote in their place of residence in the upcoming elections, those who had submitted the relevant application late.

Greeks abroad can vote in their place of residence if the application for registration in the special electoral rolls has been approved 12 days before the announcement of the elections. If the new elections are called on Monday, May 29, then this possibility will be available to those whose application was approved by May 17.

The steps towards the new elections

Otherwise, the APE-MPE presents the preparatory actions in view of the elections that should be followed from the beginning. Two days after the start of the pre-election period, the deadline for the submission of declarations by uniformed persons to their superiors and administrators regarding their intention to exercise their right to vote in the municipality, in whose electoral rolls they are written, expires.

The parties within three days of the start of the pre-election period must declare their name and emblem to the prosecutor of the Supreme Court and within seven days draw up and submit their combinations to the electronic candidate registration portal. Three days after the deadline for submitting nominations, the Supreme Court announces the electoral combinations in a public meeting.

Within 10 days of the start of the pre-election period, the deputy governors determine the electoral divisions that will be established and subsequently, the Ministry of the Interior sends the relevant tables of the entire territory to the Supreme Court’s prosecution. The latter receives, at the same time, the nominal statuses of judicial officials, lawyers, practicing lawyers, etc. for their appointment by lot as supervisors and judicial representatives. In the courts of first instance, the members of the election commissions of each electoral division and their deputies are drawn. Included in the draw are those registered in the electoral rolls of the relevant electoral district who appear in those rolls as residents of the area, have at least a primary school diploma and are under 65 years old.