Reference guide to the ‘reinforced proportional representation’ system in the upcoming runoff elections

National elections on June 25 will be held under the ‘reinforced proportional representation’ system, which differs quite considerably to the ‘simple proportional representation’ system that the May 21 national ballot was held under, elections experts told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) on Saturday.

In the ‘reinforced proportional representation’ system, the party that comes first is granted bonus seats in parliament, although this time around there is a key change compared to the elections bonus in 2007, or in electoral contests held from 2012 to 2019: the number of bonus seats is not fixed but depends on the first party’ final percentage of votes, a so-called sliding scale.

If, for example, the first party gets 25% the bonus is 20 seats, while the remaining 280 seats (Greek parliament has 300 MPs total) are distributed proportionally between the parties that made it into Parliament by reaching – or surpassing the 3% threshold. For every additional 0.5% thereof the bonus increases by one seat and the other parties’ seats are reduced accordingly. Therefore, the absolute maximum of 50 bonus seats secures the first party with a percentage of approximately 40%, which is the percentage New Democracy received in the May 21 elections.

However, a single-party, self-reliant government depends not only on the first party’ percentage but is also affected by the percentage received cumulatively by the parties which do not reach (or surpass) the 3% threshold, namely those that will be left out of parliament: more parties left out means the maximum percentage required for a standalone, single-party government drops. Conversely, more parties managing to elect MPs into parliament means the first party will require a higher percentage to reach the desired self-reliance, making it harder to govern without seeking a coalition with another party.

The experts pointed out to ANA-MPA that, for example, with a model of a five-party parliament self-reliance is secured with a percentage of around 37.5%, while a six-party parliament raises the bar to around 38.4%, and with a seven-party parliament it goes up to 39.3%.

Another key point to bear in mind in the runoff elections on June 25, it was explained, is that this time candidates are not explicitly selected by the voter with the so-called ‘cross’ inked left or right of their names on the ballot list, therefore there will be no pens inside voting booths. As experts pointed out to ANA-MPA, parties are likely to list their ballot candidates in a descending order, corresponding to their May 21 electoral performance at each constituency. All the voter has to do, it was underlined, is put one’s party list of choice into the envelope.

The date of June 25 for Greece’s runoff national elections was proposed by former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis right after the May 21 electoral contest, and is expected to be announced officially next week, after the new parliament is sworn-in on Sunday and is dissolved on Monday, per the Greek constitution.