by Gerasimos Livitsanos
It appears that PASOK will attempt to play games with the electoral law. Following the meeting of the party’s political council, Evangelos Venizelos is expected to raise the issue in his meeting on Thursday with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and propose the elimination of the 50 seat ‘bonus’ for the party that comes first in parliamentary elections.
The idea has already been discussed both in PASOK and in the government prior to the European and local elections, although it is still unclear whether New Democracy will go along with the proposal. The aim of such a move, if it happens, is more than obvious: to restrict as much as possible the possibility of the formation of a government around SYRIZA in the event that it comes first in the next parliamentary elections, whenever those take place. Indeed, PASOK MP Andreas Loverdos has already declared his support for an electoral law change, speaking on MEGA TV channel.
It is worth remembering that the idea of the parliamentary ‘bonus’ for the leading party was established 10 years ago by the same party that today is proposing its reform – ie PASOK and specifically by the then interior minister Kostas Skandalidis. The bonus was subsequently maintained and increased by the New Democracy government that followed. Indeed one of the basic elements of the rhetorical arguments employed by both parties was the need for ‘strong’ governments with clear majorities in order to guarantee stability and economic growth.
From its part SYRIZA has made it clear that on principle it would accept any proposal which would lead to straightforward proportional representation in parliament. In practice this would mean, aside from the elimination of the ‘bonus’, also an elimination of the ‘floor’ of 3% required for a party to enter parliament, and total proportionality in the awarding of seats to parties.
That was the position taken by the opposition party in October 2013 when the issue of the electoral law reform was raised in parliament by the Democratic Left (DIMAR). The then parliamentary spokesperson of SYRIZA, Dimitris Papadimoulis, had stated that ‘demands for a change in the electoral system and the adoption of simple proportional representation are longstanding demands of SYRIZA. We insist on simple, honest and clean proportionality with a total correspondence between votes and seats and because we have not moved an inch from this position, if such a proposal is made we will vote in favour of it. Exactly because we have never strayed from this argument.” Additionally the press secretary of SYRIZA Panos Scourletis had then stated that, “we have submitted a specific proposal for the establishment of simple proportionality which we believe should become a constitutional reform.” SYRIZA MPs Panagiotis Lafazanis and Giorgos Katrougalos took similar positions speaking on Monday night TV programs.
Today electoral law 3231 of 2004 is in effect with amendments included in law 3636 of 2008. The most fundamental amendment is that which increases the bonus received by the political party (and not a coalition of parties) which comes top in parliamentary elections from 40 to 50 seats. The remaining 250 seats are distributed proportionally. In effect with this law the party that takes the biggest ‘hit’ is the one that comes second in the elections.
In accordance with the constitution (article 54 par.1) if parliament passes a new electoral law, that cannot go into effect for the next parliamentary elections. For something like that to be possible it would need to be passed by 2/3 of parliament, or 200 MPs.