(MENAFN– ecpulse) The Greek Parliament chose not to elect a new president on Monday’s final and conclusive voting, leaving Greece facing a snap election that could thwart its international bailout program.
Former European Commissioner Stavros Dimas, the only candidate, failed to gather the 180 vote supermajority he needed to become president.
The third round of voting tallied 168 votes for Dimas, the same number of votes he accumulated in the second round of the vote on December 23.
A general election must now be ordered under Greek law, which could put financial markets and the country’s European Union partners in many weeks of uncertainty, which could threaten the country’s fragile recovery.
The parliament will now have to be dissolved within the next 10 days ahead of early elections.
Greece’s main stock index, the ASE Athens Stock Exchange, suffered a massive blow after the vote and fell 12%. ASE Athens SE was down 9.51% at 772.08 at 10:52 GMT.
Syriza, the radical leftist party, has held a firm lead in opinion polls for many months, although that advantage over Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has narrowed in recent weeks. Syriza is aiming to renegotiate the country’s bailout agreement with the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to roll back austerity policies.
Samaras said earlier he was confident of winning the elections, which are expected to be held in February.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.