WORLD NEWS | New Greek parliament convenes, could be dissolved as early as Monday

ATHENS, May 28 (AP) — Newly elected Greek lawmakers were sworn in Sunday, but their parliament could be dissolved as early as Monday ahead of fresh June 25 elections.

No party won an outright majority in simple proportional representation elections on May 21.

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The ruling NDP won 146 seats with 40.79 percent of the vote, five short of the 300-member Senate. The main opposition Syriza won 71 seats with 20.07%, almost 11.5 percentage points lower than in the previous election. Socialist PSOK came in third.

There was no attempt to form a coalition government, and the leaders of the three main parties returned with a mandate to form a government almost immediately after they were issued.

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A constitutionally mandated meeting on Wednesday with President Katerina Sakeiraropoulo and leaders of all five parties represented in parliament only confirmed that a second election would be called. A caretaker government led by a senior judge was sworn in on Thursday.

The next election will be held under a different system.

Lawmakers will elect a speaker and deputy speaker on Monday morning. Parliament is to be dissolved on Monday or Tuesday, marking the start of electoral campaigns.

The new elections will be held under a different system, with bonuses of 25-50 seats awarded to the winning party based on its performance.

While the NDP is clearly the favourite, a supermajority is by no means automatic: the more parties in parliament, the higher the vote share needed to achieve a supermajority.

On 21 May, two more parties barely crossed the 3% parliamentary representation threshold. If they come to power on June 25, that could raise the score needed for an election winner to secure a majority to around 39%.

NDP officials have called on voters not to take the result for granted and abstain from voting, while opposition leaders have called on people to clip the NDP’s wings and avoid an all-powerful conservative government. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)