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Kathimerini
July 15,
2003
Summary: Conflict between
parties over possible changes to the electoral law, including a
change in Greek’Äôs system of full representation. To make the article
more clear, the socialist PASOK party has majority control in
Parliament, with 158 of 300 seats. The main opposition is the
conservative New Democracy party, with 125 seats. The Communist KKE
party have 11 seats, the socialist Coalition of the Left and
Progress has 6 seats, and the socialist DIKKI party has no seats at
present.
Kathimerini, Greece
A
clash before elections
July 15, 2003 PASOK, ND spar over how polls
will be held, when they are held The government and main opposition
party yesterday kept up their disagreement over proposed changes to
the electoral law, with New Democracy rejecting outright any change
to the system. With elections at most 10 months away, the last
couple of weeks have been dominated by the PASOK government's call
for a dialogue aimed at achieving an electoral system closer to
simple proportional representation. The conservatives fear this is
just an effort to deprive them of victory as they are leading in
opinion polls. "The pre-election tricks of the government are
PASOK's confession of defeat in the next elections and New
Democracy will not take part and will not grant legitimacy to the
opportunistic discussion regarding the electoral law. We are
prepared for elections at any moment and we challenge the prime
minister to go to the polls as soon as possible," New Democracy
leader Costas Karamanlis said yesterday. "PASOK won three
electoral victories with the current system and now suddenly it
remembered the need dto change it," he told a Foreign Press
Association luncheon. "No electoral system can thwart the will of
the crushing majority of voters," he added. Karamanlis, however,
shrank back from a statement by his party's honorary chairman,
former Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, calling for early
elections. "Elections must be held in the fall and not at the end
of the (government's) four year mandate, because otherwise the
country will have to hold general elections on May 2, 2004, followed
by elections for the European Parliament two months later and the
Olympic Games another two months later," Mitsotakis said in an
interview with Athens's SKdAI radio. "A political leader who
leads the country into such a situation must have no conscience,"
he said. Stressing that he was not proposing that the president do
this, he said that the only way early elections could be held was if
Prime Minister Costas Simitis called them or President Costis
Stephanopoulos resigned. Karamanlis said he was "the last person
who would tell Mr Stephanopoulos what to do." The government
charged Mitsotakis was undermining institutions. "In Greece we
have political stability and it is a pity that a climate of
instability is being cultivated," said spokesman Christos
Protopappas. He accused Karamanlis of being "conservative" for
opposing changes to the electoral law. |
