2019 Greek legislative election

The 2019 Greek legislative election was held on 7 July 2019.[1][2] All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament were contested.

2019 Greek legislative election

7 July 2019

All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament
151 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered9,962,261
Turnout57.91%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis Alexis Tsipras Fofi Gennimata
Party ND SYRIZA KINAL
Leader since 11 January 2016 9 February 2008 14 June 2015
Leader's seat Athens B2 Achaea Athens B3
Last election 28.1%, 75 seats 35.5%, 145 seats 6.3%, 17 seats
Seats won 158 86 22
Seat change 83 59 5
Popular vote 2,251,426 1,781,180 457,527
Percentage 39.85% 31.53% 8.10%
Swing 11.76 pp 3.93 pp 1.71 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Dimitris Koutsoumpas Kyriakos Velopoulos Yanis Varoufakis
Party KKE EL MeRA25
Leader since 14 April 2013 28 June 2016 2018
Leader's seat Athens B2 Larissa Thessaloniki A
Last election 5.6%, 15 seats
Seats won 15 10 9
Seat change 0 New New
Popular vote 299,595 208,806 194,233
Percentage 5.30% 3.70% 3.44%
Swing 0.25 pp New New

Map of electoral districts, showing the largest party by share of votes. Blue indicates New Democracy was the largest, and Pink indicates SYRIZA was the largest. Darker shades indicate stronger vote share.

Prime Minister before election

Alexis Tsipras
SYRIZA

Elected Prime Minister

Kyriakos Mitsotakis
ND

Preliminary results showed that the centre-right liberal conservative New Democracy party, led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, won 158 seats, an outright majority that is more than double the party's previous representation. The party took nearly 40% of the popular vote.

This was the first national election in Greece and third election overall since the voting age was lowered to 17, and the number of parliamentary constituencies was increased from 56 to 59. Athens B, the largest constituency with 44 seats before the 2018 reform, was broken up into smaller constituencies, the largest of which has 18 seats.

On 26 May 2019, following his defeat in the 2019 European Parliament election in Greece and the concurrent local elections, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced that a snap election would be held as soon as possible following the second round of the 2019 municipal elections.[3]

Electoral system

A visual representation of the seat allocation system used in Greece
Ballots and election booths for the 2019 legislative elections in Greece

Compulsory voting was in force for the elections, with voter registration being automatic.[4] However, none of the legally existing penalties or sanctions have ever been enforced.[5]

A number of changes to the electoral system were introduced following the September 2015 elections. The voting age was reduced from 18 to 17 in July 2016,[6] with the same law also abolishing the majority bonus system, which gave a 50-seat bonus to the largest party. Instead, all 300 seats would be awarded proportionally.[6] However, this law did not come into effect for the 2019 elections, as it was not approved with the required supermajority despite the Syriza-led government expressing support for its introduction for the 2019 elections.[7] As a result, the previous system remained in force, with 250 seats elected in multi-member constituencies using a 3% electoral threshold, plus 50 bonus seats for the largest party.

The number of parliamentary constituencies was also modified in December 2018, with Athens B split into Athens B1 (North), Athens B2 (West), and Athens B3 (South), while Attica was split into East Attica and West Attica.[8]

Opinion polls

Conduct

A few minutes before the polls closed, a group of young protesters stormed the 33-d polling station in the distinct of Exarcheia in Athens and stole the ballot box. Subsequently, a previously unknown anarchist group called 'Ballot-seeking Arsonists' claimed responsibility. The group claimed that they burned the stolen ballot box. As a result, a repeat election at the same polling station was held a week later, on Sunday, 14 July.[9][10] The results did not change the final allocation of seats due to the small volume of votes.

Results

Results, showing the seats won by each party in each electoral district.
Party Votes % Seats +/–
New Democracy2,251,42639.85158+83
Syriza1,781,18031.5386–59
Movement for Change457,5278.1022+5
Communist Party of Greece299,5955.30150
Greek Solution208,8063.7010New
MeRA25194,2333.449New
Golden Dawn165,7112.930–18
Course of Freedom82,6731.460New
Union of Centrists70,1611.240–9
Recreate Greece41,6470.7400
EPAMAKKEL28,2690.5000
Antarsya23,1910.4100
Popular Unity15,9300.2800
Greek Assembly14,1730.2500
Communist Party of Greece (Marxist–Leninist)7,7780.1400
Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Greece2,7910.0500
Workers Revolutionary Party1,9930.0400
Organisation of Internationalist Communists of Greece1,6750.0300
Syn...Fonia Politikon Kommaton960.0000
Independents4720.0100
Invalid/blank votes120,172
Total5,769,5421003000
Registered voters/turnout9,962,26157.91
Source: Ministry of the Interior
    Vote share (in %)
    New Democracy
    39.85%
    Syriza
    31.53%
    Movement for Change
    8.10%
    Communist Party
    5.30%
    Greek Solution
    3.70%
    MeRA25
    3.44%
    Golden Dawn
    2.93%
    Course of Freedom
    1.46%
    Union of Centrists
    1.24%
    Others
    2.45%
    Parliamentary seats
    New Democracy
    52.67%
    Syriza
    28.67%
    Movement for Change
    7.33%
    Communist Party
    5.00%
    Greek Solution
    3.33%
    MeRA25
    3.00%

    References

    1. "Greek elections: New Democracy on course for majority". BBC News. 7 July 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
    2. Mylonas, Harris (2020). "Greece: Political Developments and Data in 2019". European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook. doi:10.1111/2047-8852.12299. ISSN 2047-8852.
    3. "After defeat, Greek PM calls for snap elections | Kathimerini". www.ekathimerini.com. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
    4. "Constitution of Greece" (PDF). Hellenic Parliament. Retrieved 5 November 2011. Article 51, Clause 5: The exercise of the right to vote is compulsory.
    5. Υποχρεωτική η ψήφος αλλά "παγωμένες" οι κυρώσεις [Voting is mandatory, but penalties "frozen"]. Eleftherotypia (in Greek). Archived from the original on 17 February 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
    6. Εφημερίδα της Κυβερνήσεως τη Ελληνικής Δημοκρατίας [Government Gazette of the Hellenic Republic] (in Greek), A, Athens: National Publishing House, 27 July 2016, retrieved 12 February 2019
    7. "Σκουρλέτης: Μακάρι η απλή αναλογική να εφαρμοστεί στις επόμενες εκλογές" [Skourletis: I hope the simple proportional representation system will be enforced in the next elections]. www.kathimerini.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 12 March 2019.
    8. Εφημερίδα της Κυβερνήσεως τη Ελληνικής Δημοκρατίας [Government Gazette of the Hellenic Republic] (in Greek), A, Athens: National Publishing House, 31 December 2018, retrieved 12 February 2019
    9. "Anarchist group claims responsibility for stolen ballot box". Kathimerini. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
    10. "Anarchists Storm Polling Station and Burn Ballot Box in Athens". Greek Reporter. 7 July 2019. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
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