Greek politics is strongly dynastic. Kostas Karamanlis is the nephew of Konstantinos Karamanlis, who was six times (1955, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1974, 1977) Prime Minister and twice President of Greece (1980–1985, 1990–1995), and the founder of New Democracy after the restoration of democracy in 1974. George Papandreou is the son of Andreas Papandreou, three times (1981, 1985, 1993) Prime Minister and the founder of PASOK, and the grandson of Georgios Papandreou, a liberal centrist who entered national politics in the 1920s and was twice Prime Minister (1944, 1963). Athens daily Kathimerini quoted a voter during the campaign as saying: "We Greeks like to know where our leaders come from. We feel we know these families as well as we know our own."[citation needed]
The campaignEdit
In January New Democracy was leading PASOK in opinion polls by 7%. But Papandreou's election to the party leadership allowed PASOK to regain ground. During February Papandreou campaigned on "the need for change" in Greece, hoping to neutralise the strong sentiment for a change of government. By late February New Democracy's lead in the opinion polls had been cut to 3%.
The Athens daily Kathemerini commented: "Now, two weeks before the elections, all opinion polls show PASOK 3 to 4.5 percentage points behind ND. This raises the question of whether PASOK can snatch victory away from ND. The fact is that much is unclear. For example, although PASOK has little support, its leader has a good image in public opinion polls."
The electoral campaign concluded on in the traditional manner, with huge televised mass rallies in the centre of Athens by each of the major parties. On the evening of 4 March Karamanlis addressed an estimated 200,000 at the ND's concluding rally. PASOK claimed that twice that number attended their rally on 6 March, but these numbers cannot be independently verified. At the ND rally, Karamanlis said that PASOK had been in power too long and had grown lazy and corrupt. At the PASOK rally, Papandreou evoked the memory of his father but said that he would lead a government dedicated to reform and change, as well as action against corruption.
Since publication of opinion polls is banned in the last two weeks of Greek election campaigns, it was not possible to predict the outcome of the election, except to say that ND appeared to have been leading when the last polls were published, and that most commentators expected the result in terms of votes to be close. Greek electoral law ensures, through a complex algorithm of parliamentary seat redistribution, that a party polling a plurality of the vote (that is, more than any other party but also more than 40%) is practically guaranteed a majority in Parliament.
A "threshold" of 3% of the total popular vote is also required by law for a party to be eligible for representation in Parliament. This provision kept all but the four top-polling parties from securing parliamentary seats.
ResultsEdit
Results, showing the winning party in each municipal unit.
The result of the election was not as close as observers expected. It appears that ND regained its earlier lead over PASOK in the two weeks after the last opinion polls, and that the election of George Papandreou as PASOK leader was not sufficient to overcome the desire of the electorate for a change after a long period of PASOK rule.
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Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 7 March 2004 1 The New Democracy Party of Kostas Karamanlis won the elections ending eleven years of rule by PASOK PASOK was led into the elections by George Papandreou who succeeded retiring Prime Minister Costas Simitis as party leader in February 2004 Greek legislative election 2000 7 March 2004 2007 All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament151 seats needed for a majority First party Second party Leader Kostas Karamanlis George PapandreouParty ND PASOKLast election 42 73 125 seats 43 80 158 seatsSeats won 165 117Seat change 40 41Popular vote 3 359 682 3 003 275Percentage 45 36 40 55 Swing 2 63pp 3 25pp Third party Fourth party Leader Aleka Papariga Nikos KonstantopoulosParty KKE SyrizaLast election 5 52 11 seats 3 20 6 seatsSeats won 12 6Seat change 1Popular vote 436 573 241 539Percentage 5 90 3 26 Swing 0 38pp 0 06ppMap of electoral districts showing the largest party by share of votes Darker shades indicate stronger vote share Prime Minister before electionCostas SimitisPASOK Prime Minister after election Kostas KaramanlisND Contents 1 Leaders 2 The campaign 3 Results 4 References 5 SourcesLeaders EditGreek politics is strongly dynastic Kostas Karamanlis is the nephew of Konstantinos Karamanlis who was six times 1955 1956 1958 1961 1974 1977 Prime Minister and twice President of Greece 1980 1985 1990 1995 and the founder of New Democracy after the restoration of democracy in 1974 George Papandreou is the son of Andreas Papandreou three times 1981 1985 1993 Prime Minister and the founder of PASOK and the grandson of Georgios Papandreou a liberal centrist who entered national politics in the 1920s and was twice Prime Minister 1944 1963 Athens daily Kathimerini quoted a voter during the campaign as saying We Greeks like to know where our leaders come from We feel we know these families as well as we know our own citation needed The campaign EditIn January New Democracy was leading PASOK in opinion polls by 7 But Papandreou s election to the party leadership allowed PASOK to regain ground During February Papandreou campaigned on the need for change in Greece hoping to neutralise the strong sentiment for a change of government By late February New Democracy s lead in the opinion polls had been cut to 3 The Athens daily Kathemerini commented Now two weeks before the elections all opinion polls show PASOK 3 to 4 5 percentage points behind ND This raises the question of whether PASOK can snatch victory away from ND The fact is that much is unclear For example although PASOK has little support its leader has a good image in public opinion polls The electoral campaign concluded on in the traditional manner with huge televised mass rallies in the centre of Athens by each of the major parties On the evening of 4 March Karamanlis addressed an estimated 200 000 at the ND s concluding rally PASOK claimed that twice that number attended their rally on 6 March but these numbers cannot be independently verified At the ND rally Karamanlis said that PASOK had been in power too long and had grown lazy and corrupt At the PASOK rally Papandreou evoked the memory of his father but said that he would lead a government dedicated to reform and change as well as action against corruption Since publication of opinion polls is banned in the last two weeks of Greek election campaigns it was not possible to predict the outcome of the election except to say that ND appeared to have been leading when the last polls were published and that most commentators expected the result in terms of votes to be close Greek electoral law ensures through a complex algorithm of parliamentary seat redistribution that a party polling a plurality of the vote that is more than any other party but also more than 40 is practically guaranteed a majority in Parliament A threshold of 3 of the total popular vote is also required by law for a party to be eligible for representation in Parliament This provision kept all but the four top polling parties from securing parliamentary seats Results Edit Results showing the winning party in each municipal unit ND 711 PASOK 311 KKE 2 The result of the election was not as close as observers expected It appears that ND regained its earlier lead over PASOK in the two weeks after the last opinion polls and that the election of George Papandreou as PASOK leader was not sufficient to overcome the desire of the electorate for a change after a long period of PASOK rule PartyVotes Seats New Democracy3 360 42445 36165 40PASOK3 003 98840 55117 41Communist Party of Greece436 8185 9012 1Syriza241 7143 2660Popular Orthodox Rally162 4922 190NewDemocratic Social Movement132 9331 7900Union of Centrists19 5100 2600Radical Left Front11 2850 1500Communist Party of Greece Marxist Leninist 10 8640 1500Anti Capitalist Coalition8 3200 110NewHellenic Front6 7620 090NewMarxist Leninist Communist Party of Greece4 7650 060NewFighting Socialist Party of Greece3 1750 0400Liberal Party2 6190 0400Organization for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Greece2 0970 0300Christianity30 0000Independents6050 0100Total7 408 374100 003000Valid votes7 408 37497 80Invalid blank votes166 8162 20Total votes7 575 190100 00Registered voters turnout9 886 80776 62Source Nohlen amp StoverReferences Edit Dieter Nohlen amp Philip Stover 2010 Elections in Europe A data handbook p830 ISBN 978 3 8329 5609 7Sources Edithttps web archive org web 20120722093442 http www ypes gr el Elections NationalElections Results nationallectures2004 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title 2004 Greek legislative election amp oldid 1163513210, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
