Greece fails to elect a new president in the first round of voting

The first attempt by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to elect a new head of state has failed, after he was unable to gather enough support from lawmakers.

In the first round of voting 100 lawmakers, out of a total of 300, withheld their backing for the candidate proposed, Stavros Dimas. The Prime Minister needed to obtain the backing of at least 200 parliamentarians.

The prime minister´s New Democracy party only has 155 lawmakers.

Dimas received only 160 votes in his favour, with 135 having cast their ballots against him and the remainder abstaining.

A second round of voting is due on 23 December, on which occassion Samaras will again need a two-thirds majority to win. The last attempt will come on 29 December.

Should he fail to garner sufficient support in that last round then parliament will be dissolved, forcing early elections to be called, possibly in January.

Rates strategists at RBS put the odds of new elections in January at above 40%, which they consider to be “high”.

That could see the anti-austerity party SYRIZA come to power.

In the meantime, “the prospect of early parliamentary elections has roiled financial markets in Greece, evoking memories of the height of the financial crisis in 2012 when the country’s euro membership was in jeopardy. Polls show anti-austerity opposition party Syriza ahead of Samaras’s New Democracy,” RBS´s Alberto Gallo wrote in a research note e-mailed to clients.

Elections might be averted, at least for now

However, in the third round of elections Samaras will only be asked to show a majority of 180 votes in favour.

Given the current state of play in Greek politics, many independent MPs and those from the Dimar party may decide to support the government, so that they can stay in power until 2017, thus allowing New Democracy to narrowly avert a defeat this time around, Barclays Research says.