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Template:Future election

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on Sunday, September 16, 2007, to elect the 300 members of the Greek Parliament. The leading party for a second term was New Democracy under the leadership of Kostas Karamanlis with 41.84%, followed by George Papandreou and PASOK with 38.10%. New Democracy managed to secure an absolute but narrow majority of 152 out of 300 parliament seats. The nationalist populist Popular Orthodox Rally entered the parliament for the first time with 10 seats, while the parties of the left, KKE and SYRIZA, enjoyed a significant increase in their votes. The Ecologist Greens, which was contesting its first general election, became the largest extra-parliamentary party.

The difference of nearly four percentage points between the first two parties has resulted in the announcement of George Papandreou that he will seek reaffirmation of his party leadership, with Evangelos Venizelos also declaring candidacy for the post.

Procedure

There were concerns that the election could return a hung parliament, mainly due to the recently revised Greek electoral law, which although it preserved the 3% threshold necessary for a party to enter parliament, it would not reward as many seats for the leading party. Parliamentary majority was considered more difficult especially after the early projection that five parties would cross this threshold for the first time.

According to the electoral law, the first-past-the post party was automatically awarded a bonus of 40 parliamentary seats. The remaining 260 seats were divided among all parties that achieved a minimum 3% nationwide vote tally, strictly in proportion to their polling returns. Since a majority of 151 seats was required, the leading party should secure at least 111 seats (42.7% of 260) in order to be able to form a government. Karamanlis had stated that in the event that no party should manage to achieve a majority, he would seek a new election.^[1] Papandreou had vaguely indicated that he may have pursued an alliance with the left, however the SYRIZA and KKE parties had categorically dismissed any possibility of participating in a coalition with any of the major parties.

No opinion polls were allowed to be published after September 1. The polls publicized prior to the election had concluded that:

The next Parliament would be a five-party Parliament.
New Democracy would hold a smaller lead over PASOK at around 2%.
The goal of a workable parliamentary majority hung in the brink, with some pollsters projecting 147-149 and some 151-153 seats for the leading party.

The law traditionally requires that voting begins at "sunrise" and ends at "sunset". In practice this is rounded up to the nearest top of the hour. Voting began at 7 AM and concluded at 7 PM. 7 PM was also the time when media outlets publicized their exit polls and issued their predictions. According to SingularLogic, the official IT contractor of the Ministry of the Interior, initial returns would not reach statistical significance before 11 PM and firm estimates might not emerge until after midnight. Voting took place in 20,623 polling stations - mostly schools - throughout the country, each of which catered to 400-500 voters on average.

Opinion polls, January–August 2007

A collection of opinion polls taken this year is listed below. According to law, publication of opinion polls is forbidden in the fortnight prior to the election date. Therefore the last day when opinion polls were published was September 1, 2007, and practically all opinion polling firms published their final public reports on August 31, 2007, in time for the evening news.

Polling Firm	Date Published	ND	PASOK	KKE	SYRIZA^[2]	LAOS	Other	None	Unsure
Public Issue/VPRC	14 January 2007	43.0%	39.0%	7.5%	4.0%	3.5%	3.0%
GPO	15 January 2007	35.9%	33.7%	7.3%	4.1%	4.4%	0.7%	4.4%	9.3%
Kapa Research	10 February 2007	37.5%	35.9%	7.4%	3.6%	3.2%			12.4%
Public Issue/VPRC	11 February 2007	43.0%	39.5%	7.5%	4.0%	3.5%	2.5%
RASS	25 February 2007	36.7%	33.9%	5.8%	2.8%	2.7%			18.1%
Public Issue/VPRC	11 March 2007	43.0%	39.5%	7.0%	4.5%	3.5%	2.5%
Metron Analysis	22 March 2007	37.1%	35.9%	7.0%	3.1%	3.6%			13.3%
ALCO	30 March 2007	33.9%	33.4%	5.5%	2.8%	2.2%			22.2%
Kapa Research	30 March 2007	36.9%	35.9%	7.0%	3.4%	3.9%			12.9%
GPO	2 April 2007	36.0%	34.2%	7.0%	4.0%	4.5%	0.9%	3.9%	9.5%
Public Issue/VPRC	13 April 2007	42.5%	39.0%	7.0%	4.5%	4.0%	3.0%
MRB	27 April 2007	35.9%	33.5%	6.7%	4.1%	3.7%			16.1%
Public Issue/VPRC	13 May 2007	42.5%	39.5%	6.5%	5.0%	3.5%	3.0%
MRB	24 May 2007	35.7%	33.7%	6.3%	4.4%	4.7%			15.2%
Metron Analysis	2 June 2007	33.4%	32.0%	6.8%	3.6%	4.4%			19.8%
Public Issue/VPRC	8 June 2007	43.0%	39.0%	7.0%	4.5%	4.0%	2.5%
GPO	4 June 2007	35.5%	34.5%	7.1%	4.4%	4.9%	2.3%	3.3%	8.0%
ALCO	15 June 2007	34.2%	34.0%	6.3%	2.9%	3.5%	1.6%	2.5%	14.7%
MRB	15 June 2007	36.3%	34.0%	7.0%	4.4%	3.7%			14.6%
Metron Analysis	21 June 2007	36.8%	35.8%	6.4%	3.8%	3.8%			13.4%
Kapa Research	30 June 2007	36.1%	35.1%	7.6%	4.3%	4.2%	0.6%		12.1%
Public Issue/VPRC	16 July 2007	42.5%	38.5%	7.5%	4.5%	3.5%	3.5%
GPO	22 August 2007	36.2%	34.6%	7.1%	4.2%	4.6%	'	5.8%	7.5%
Metron Analysis	22 August 2007	31.0%	29.5%	7.0%	4.3%	3.5%	2.5%	6.8%	15.4%
MRB	23 August 2007	36.8%	34.8%	6.8%	4.5%	4.0%	1.3%	2.8%	9.0%
Kapa Research	26 August 2007	34.9%	33.6%	7.2%	4.9%	4.1%	1,6%		13.7%
ALCO	27 August 2007	35.0%	34.2%	6.5%	3.4%	3.6%	0.8%	4.1%	11.8%
MRB	28 August 2007	35.2%	33.2%	7.3%	4.4%	3.9%	2.2%	4.3%	6.7%
Metron Analysis	29 August 2007	29.7%	28.1%	8.1%	4.7%	3.6%	2.6%	10.5%	17.4%
GPO	29 August 2007	36.0%	34.8%	7.0%	4.5%	4.9%	2.1%	'	10.7%
ALCO	29 August 2007	31.6%	30.9%	6.2%	3.4%	3.3%	1.8%	8.7%	15.9%
Public Issue/VPRC (vote projection)*	31 August 2007	42.0%	38.0%	8.5%	5.0%	4.0%	2.5%	'	'
MRB	31 August 2007	35.4%	33.3%	7.5%	4.7%	3.7%	'	'	'
GPO	31 August 2007	37.4%	36.0%	7.6%	4.2%	4.7%	'	'	'
ALCO	31 August 2007	31.5%	30.8%	6.5%	3.7%	3.6%	'	'	'

Public Issue/VPRC noted that their report was a prediction based on the time-series of opinion polls they had conducted.

Events before the election

August 22, 2007: The Democratic Social Movement (DIKKI) (6th largest party in the previous elections) announced its electoral alliance with the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA).^[3]
August 29, 2007: Opinion pollers MRB came under criticism from PASOK. Mathematical inconcistencies were alleged, such as response tallies summing up to more than 100%. MRB denied the allegations. MRB's parent company, Spot-Thompson Greece, are New Democracy's advertisers.^{[citation needed]}
August 30, 2007: MRB came under more fire as it cancelled publication of its regular biannual "Trends" survey, citing extreme difficulty in obtaining accurate information in the fire-stricken areas. Critics said that this admission automatically rendered previous voting behavior MRB estimates from these areas unreliable;^{[citation needed]} yet, the election results in the prefectures which were devastated by the fires (Ilia, Euboea and Arcadia), were marked by a loss in votes for both the main opposition party and the ruling party.
September 1, 2007: The Areios Pagos refused to certify Fofi Gennimata as a candidate for the PASOK nationwide list, citing non-eligibility because Mrs. Gennimata is elected the superprefect of Athens and Piraeus. This was criticised angrily by PASOK as an attempt to politicise the courts.^[4]
September 2, 2007: The Areios Pagos:
- refused to include the title of DIKKI in the electoral alliance of SYRIZA claiming that the internal procedures followed by DIKKI were flawed. This was criticised furiously by SYRIZA and DIKKI as inappropriate interference in party political activity on behalf of the courts.^[5]
- refused to allow the New Fascism (Greek: Νέος Φασισμός) party contest the election because of its provocative name. ^[6]
- refused to allow the New Salvation Party - Christian Democracy to use the Cross as its logo on the grounds that it is a religious symbol.^[6]
- excluded seven other parties from the elections for failure to pay the required electoral deposit.^[6]
September 6, 2007: NET state television, in simulcast with the major private TV stations, broadcasted the debate among the leaders of ND, PASOK, KKE, SYRIZA, LAOS, and DA, who were questioned by six reporters in six rounds of questions and follow-ups. Questions and responses were rotated and timed. The debate lasted approximately 2.5 hours and concluded with a 2-minute speech by each leader. The debate format, agreed beforehand by the participating parties, met with criticism for being too rigid and formal, too protective of the politicians and not conducive to exhaustive scrutiny of their policies.^{[citation needed]}

Exit polls

The Greek media outlets issued their exit polls at 19:00 local time.^[7] ^[8]

Media outlet	Polling Firm	ND	PASOK	KKE	SYRIZA	LAOS	Others/ blank/ invalid
ΕRΤ	Rass	42.2%	38.5%	7.5%	5.0%	3.5%	3.3%
ANT1¹	Metron Analysis	40.4-42.8%	36.8-39.2%	7.4-8.8%	4.8-6.0%	3.2-4.2%	2.8-3.6%
Alpha	MRB	40.8-42.8%	37.5-39.5%	7.5-8.5%	4.5-6.0%	3.5-4.5%	2.0-3.5%
Alter	ALCO	40.6-42.6%	37.8-39.8%	6.4- 8%	4.6-5.8%	3.5-4.5%	2-3.5%
Mega	GPO	41-43%	37.5-39.5%	7.5-9%	4.5-6%	3.5-4%	2.5-3%
Skai	V-PRC	41-43%	36-38%	7.5-9.5%	5-6%	3.5-4.5%	2.5-3.5%
Star	Kapa Research	41.9%	38.4%	7.7%	5.3%	4.0%	2.7%
exit poll average:	all	41.9%	38.2%	7.9%	5.3%	3.8%	3.0%
Mega²	GPO	42.0% 153 seats	37.8% 101 seats	8.2% 22 seats	5.0% 13 seats	4.0% 11 seats	3.0% -

¹ Revised exit poll presented at 20:30 local time
² Statistical projection based on official returns, presented at 21:30 local time - claimed margin of error: 0.2%

Results

Note: the count has not been completed and the final breakdown of the vote will not be available until then.

The following table shows the tallies with 99 percent of votes counted Template:Greek legislative election, 2007

At 1 AM, September 17, 2007, PASOK leader George Papandreou conceded defeat and Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis thanked the electorate for granting him and his party a renewed term in office. George Papandreou also stated that he will seek his party's direct reaffirmation in his leadership, and Evangelos Venizelos, PASOK's informal #2, declared "present" in this process.^[9]

Notes

^ New general elections to be called if ruling party fails to secure majority in parliament: Greek PM
^ Most of the earlier polls refer to the Coalition of the Left, of Movements and Ecology, which is part of the SYRIZA coalition.
^ 22/8/2007 DIKKI press release
^ 3/9/2007 article by Phileleftheros
^ 2/9/2007 DIKKI press release
^ ^a ^b ^c "Σε ποιους «έδειξε πόρτα» ο Αρειος Πάγος", in Eleftheros Typos, 3 September 2007
^ Exit poll results from in.gr
^ Exit poll results from the Ethnos daily newspaper
^ Antenna news, Θέμα ηγεσίας στο ΠΑΣΟΚ (leadership issue in PASOK), Retrieved 2007-09-17.

External links

Official Interior Ministry results page for elections: Live online transmission in English
Official proclamation of all the candidates by the Supreme Court Template:El icon
Ta Nea/Athens News election website Transclusion error: {{En}} is only for use in File namespace. Use {{lang-en}} or {{in lang|en}} instead.
Live election coverage from Athens International Radio Transclusion error: {{En}} is only for use in File namespace. Use {{lang-en}} or {{in lang|en}} instead.

[1] New general elections to be called if ruling party fails to secure majority in parliament: Greek PM

[2] Most of the earlier polls refer to the Coalition of the Left, of Movements and Ecology, which is part of the SYRIZA coalition.

[3] 22/8/2007 DIKKI press release

[4] 3/9/2007 article by Phileleftheros

[5] 2/9/2007 DIKKI press release

[ap-6] "Σε ποιους «έδειξε πόρτα» ο Αρειος Πάγος", in Eleftheros Typos, 3 September 2007

[7] Exit poll results from in.gr

[8] Exit poll results from the Ethnos daily newspaper

[9] Antenna news, Θέμα ηγεσίας στο ΠΑΣΟΚ (leadership issue in PASOK), Retrieved 2007-09-17.

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Elections and referendums in Greece
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