SYRIZA Heads For Historic Victory But Without Majority
- by XpatAthens
- Thursday, 19 February 2015
SYRIZA was on the verge of a historic election victory on Sunday night but one that might not hand the leftist party an outright parliamentary majority, raising doubts about whether a government can be formed in the next few days.
With 70 percent of the votes counted at around midnight, SYRIZA held 36 percent and New Democracy 28.2. This would give SYRIZA 149 seats in Parliament, two short of a majority. The two parties were followed by Golden Dawn on 6.4 percent, Potami on 5.9 and the Communist Party (KKE) on 5.4. PASOK and Independent Greeks also looked certain to enter Parliament, both with close to a 4.7 percent share of the vote.
George Papandreou’s Movement of Democratic Socialists (Kinima) appeared set to miss out on a place in Parliament as it was under the 3 percent threshold for gaining seats, with 2.4 percent.
This means that SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras is likely to receive a three-day exploratory mandate from President Karolos Papoulias on Monday. If Tsipras cannot form a government, the mandate will pass to New Democracy for three days and then the third party for another three. However, as SYRIZA receives a 50-seat bonus for coming first, the other parties will not have enough seats to create a majority coalition and second elections would be needed, as in 2012.
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