Greek main opposition New Democracy leader Evangelos Meimarakis received a mandate to form a government by the President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, on Friday morning.
Meimarakis, as leader of the second largest political force in Greece, will meet with Parliament President Zoe Konstantopoulou to see if there is a possibility to form a government from the present parliamentary forces, including SYRIZA lawmakers, but without Alexis Tsipras as Prime Minister.
The main opposition party leader stated that he will meet with Konstantopoulou and Tsipras to thoroughly examine the option of forming a government from the present parliament without resorting to elections.
After receiving the mandate, Meimarakis stated that his decision to exhaustively investigate the possibility to form a government is not a call to apostasy. He said that elections should be avoided because they will harm the economy and set Greece back by a few weeks.
Meimarakis said that government Vice President Yiannis Dragasakis would be the ideal Prime Minister of an all-party government at the moment because he is serious, trustworthy, cooperative and communicative.
What do the Greek Constitution and Electoral Law say
According to the Greek Constitution, the election date cannot be set yet, as the three largest parties will get an exploratory mandate to form a government. Each exploratory mandate is valid for three days.
Pursuant to article 37, paragraph 3, and article 40 of the Constitution, if all three parties fail to form a government, the President of the Republic will appoint one of the heads of the three supreme courts of the country as a transitional Prime Minister.
Also, under article 40, paragraph 3, of the Constitution, “the dissolution of parliament decree… must at the same time include the call for elections within thirty days and the convocation of a new parliament within thirty days after the election.”
The next paragraph in the same article provides that “a parliament elected after the dissolution of the previous parliament cannot be dissolved until one year after sessions began.”
Under electoral law, since there have not been 18 months from the previous election (January 25), party ballots will have lists of candidates and voters cannot choose specific candidates.
If party leaders exhaust the maximum of three days of exploratory mandates, the most probable dates for the election are September 27 and October 4.
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