At 12 noon today Monday, the acting Minister of the Interior, professor Kalliopi Spanou will forward to the office of the Speaker of the Parliament Konstantinou Tasoula the final results of the electoral contest.

Mr. Tasoulas will then go to Herodos Attikou where he will deliver them to the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

According to article 37 of the Constitution, “the President of the Republic after establishing from the final results that the leader of the first party does not have the absolute majority (151) of the seats in the new Parliament” will initiate the investigative orders process.

The President of the Republic he will call the leader of the first party in a parliamentary force, which has the relevant majority, in order to determine the possibility of forming a Government that enjoys the confidence of the Parliament.

If this effort proves fruitless, Ms. Sakellaropoulou will provide the exploratory mandate to the leader of the party with the second largest parliamentary power and if that doesn’t work either, the President of the Republic will give the exploratory mandate to the leader of the third party in parliamentary party strength.

Each political leader of the first three parties has the possibility to keep the exploratory mandate for up to three days in order to complete the relevant consultations with the rest of the parliamentary parties for the formation of a cooperation government.

The exhaustion of the three days, of course, it is not mandatory. If one of the three political leaders wants, he can refuse the possibility of exercising the investigative orders and deliver it immediately upon its performance by the President of the Republic or at any time within three days.

The constitutional limit for the formation of a government, based on article 84 of the Constitution, is the ability to receive a vote of confidence from the Hellenic Parliament, i.e. either 151 positive votes or an absolute majority of the deputies present which cannot be lower than 2 /5 of the total number of deputies, i.e. 120 votes, as long as there are more of those who will vote against it.

However, in the event that the exploratory orders are not effective and it does not appear that a government can be formed, the President of the Republic will call to the Presidential Palace the leaders of all the parliamentary parties that have emerged from the elections, for the investigation of the formation of a Government that has the confidence of the Parliament.

If this effort also proves to be fruitless, then Mrs. Sakellaropoulou will seek the formation of a caretaker Government of wider acceptance by all the parties of the Parliament for the holding of new elections.

The duties of the Prime Minister will be assigned to the President of the Court of Auditors Ioannis Sharma, who is the oldest of the three presidents of the three Supreme Courts of the country.

Swearing in of a new Parliament

Irrespective of the result of the formation of a government (one-party, cooperation, tolerance or official for the holding of new elections), the Parliament that has resulted from the polls will convene at 11 am on Thursday 1 June 2023 for its swearing-in. The next day, the Plenary of the IX Parliamentary Period will convene for the election of the President of the Hellenic Parliament.

And the following day, the election of the Vice-Presidents of the Parliament (proportionately from all parliamentary parties), the Secretaries and Deans of the Parliament of the Hellenes will take place.

In the event that the exploratory orders and the formation of a Government to receive a vote of confidence from the Parliament have been fruitless and an Interim Government has been formed to hold new elections, the President of the Republic will issue a new Presidential Decree dissolving the ITH Parliamentary Period, announcing of elections and the day and time of the convergence of the Kth Parliamentary Period.

The next national elections will be held with the electoral system of enhanced proportional representation (where the first party receives a “bonus” of 40 seats) and the deputies will not be elected by a cross of preference from the voters, but based on the list of candidates they have prepared the parties.

The new pre-election period can be from 22 days to one month. Parties and combinations of parties should submit to the Supreme Court the relevant application for participation in the national elections.