By Penelope Galliou

Its definition May as the month of elections by the prime minister and with the prevailing scenario on Sunday, May 21, Constantine and Helen, automatically the period after Easter turns into a “domino” of political processes and developments.

Steps that will lead to the setting up of the first ballot box and, if necessary, will be followed by the corresponding ones that will also lead to second elections at the beginning of July.

If the prime minister chooses May 21 for the country to go to the polls, the announcement of the elections is expected to take place after Easter and the dissolution of Parliament immediately after St. Thomas’ Sunday, on Monday, April 24.

Immediately after the dissolution of the Parliament, and if everything starts with an election date of May 21, at the same time the way will be opened for the submission of nominations and by May 2 they will have to be submitted to the electronic candidate registration portal, the candidate MPs, while it will have prior to the filing with the Supreme Court of the name and logo of each political formation, so that the Supreme Court can then declare the combinations that will participate in the elections.

The interest in this phase is focused on the party of Ilias Kasidiaris and whether he will participate in the elections

The outcome of the elections will also determine the subsequent steps. In the case of non-self-reliance, which is considered certain as the elections will be held using the simple proportional system, the President of the Republic on May 22, in accordance with Article 37 of the Constitution, will initiate investigative orders which can last from three to nine days.

Initially, the first order to form a government is given to the leader of the party with the first number of votes that emerged in the elections, but if it is found that it is impossible to form a government, the President of the Republic, who can give up to three exploratory orders to the three largest parties, gives the order to the leader of the second party and if again no cooperation is achieved to form a government, the mandate goes to the third party that emerged from the elections.

Since the mandates are fruitless, the President then convenes a meeting of political leaders under her presidency in a last-ditch effort to form a world government, which is also considered impossible at this juncture.

In this case, the “next step” is the formation of a caretaker government, between May 25 and 30, depending on the days the exploratory orders will last, with Ms. Sakellaropoulou appointing the caretaker prime minister, who is always one of the presidents of three supreme courts of the country and, subsequently, the interim government of the country is appointed and sworn in. At the same time, after the inauguration of the caretaker government, the new Parliament is formed for a single day in order to elect a presidency and then it is dissolved again in order to lead the country to the second polls.

In this scenario, the most favorable date, if the developments lead there, is for the second elections to be held on July 2, but now with the new electoral law passed by the ND government, the enhanced proportional one. The result of the second ballot will determine the subsequent developments again, the exploratory orders, the formation of the government and the swearing in of the new Parliament. In the case of an autonomous government, it is a given that the procedures will run much faster so that a government will be formed by July 10.

However, this timetable can be extended if again no independent government emerges from the elections and through exploratory orders and again based on article 37 of the Constitution – as I described above – cooperation of parties that will form the new government is sought and achieved.

If not, the question remains whether the parties – refusing to cooperate with each other – will take responsibility for leading the country to third elections.