President Stavros Dimas’ candidacy for president, a largely titular role, received just 160 votes of support with 135 MPs abstaining and five absent. According to article 32 of the Greek Constitution, Mr. Dimas required the support of 200 deputies in order to be elected in the first round.

MPs present during the roll-call vote could either vote by calling out Mr. Dimas’ name or abstain from the voting process by calling out “present”.

Those in favor
None of the MPS strayed from their official party lines. All 127 conservative New Democracy ND MP’s and 28 socialist PASOK MPs voted in favor of Mr. Dimas, giving the presidential candidate a guaranteed 155 votes. The additional five votes in his favor were from former Democratic Left DIMAR MPs Spyros Lykoudis, Grigoris Psarianos and Katerina Markou, former Independent Greeks ANEL MP Georgios Davris and former PASOK MP Christos Aidonis.

Those against
MPs that called out “present”, indicating their opposition to Mr. Dimas, were all 70 SYRIZA MPs that were present for the vote, except MP Anna Hatzisofia, who was abroad, all 12 ANEL MPs, all 12 Communist Party of Greece (KKE) MPs, all 10 Democratic Left (DIMAR) MPs and all 16 ultranationalist far-right Golden Dawn MPs. The independent MPs that abstained included former ND MP Vyron Polydoras, former PASOK MP Theodoros Parastatidis, former SYRIZA MP Petros Tatsopoulos, former ANEL MP YIannis Kourakos, former DIMAR MP Vassilis Economou, Mimis Androulakis, Theodora Tzakri, Markos Bolaris, Vassilis Kapernaros, Mika Iatridi, Rachel Makri, Chrysoula Giatagana, Panagiotis Melas and Odysseas Voudouris, Paris Moutsinas and Vassilis Economou.

Who was absent?
Independent deputies Georgios Kasapidis and Kostas Giovanopoulos, former GD and now independent deputies Stathis Boukouras and Chrysovalantis Alexopoulos and main opposition Radical Left SYRIZA MP Anna Hatzisofia, who was abroad. The latter sent a letter stating that if she were in Greek Parliament she would not support Mr. Dimas’ candidacy and would vote “present”, however this could not be counted as a vote.

The Surprise
Independent MP Panagiotis Melas had abstained from voting even though he had previously indicated that he would support Mr. Dimas.

Parliament President Evangelos Meimarakis announced that the second round of roll-call voting would be held at noon on Tuesday, December 23, and will again require a two-thirds majority or 200 votes. If this is not reached, a third round on December 29 will require 180 votes. Following failure of the third round to elect a president, parliament dissolves and the country will be forced to hold early national elections in January