GREECE

ELECTIONS HELD IN 2004

<<< Return to the Historical Archive page of parliamentary elections results for GREECE <<<

 
 
Chamber:
  Vouli Ton Ellinon
 
Dates of election / renewal (from/to):
  7 March 2004
  7 March 2004
 
Purpose of elections:
  Elections were held for all the seats in Parliament on the normal expiry of the members' term of office.
 
Background and outcome of elections:
  On 8 January 2004, Prime Minister, Costas Simitis, announced an early general election for 7 March 2004. On that occasion he also announced that he was stepping down as President of the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) and would hand over the party leadership before the poll to Mr. George Papandreou, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the oldest son of Mr. Andreas Papandreou, founder of the Pasok and grandson of Mr. George Papanreou, both of them former Prime Ministers.

The reason to bring forward the elections from May to March was to enable a new government to reach a settlement on Cyprus before the island joined the European Union on 1st May 2004, as Greece is one of the island's guarantor powers, along with Britain and Turkey.

On 14 February 2004 Parliament was dissolved to launch the electoral campaign which was marked by a close fight between the long-governing Socialists and their conservative challengers. The Pasok had been in power for all but three of the past 23 years but the opinion polls showed that it was behind the opposition conservative New Democracy party by eight points. Increasingly, Greek voters had expressed dissatisfaction at spiralling prices and perceived corruption within the governing party. With unemployment at about 10%, many complained that their living standards had declined dramatically, even though the country enjoys Europe's highest level of economic growth.

During the electoral campaign, Mr. Constantin Caramanlis, New Democracy's President presented the party's economic programme. Amongst other things it planned a reduction of between 25% and 20% of the tax coefficient on profits made by limited companies, an increase in the provision of the weakest incomes (EKAS) that would rise from 200 to 330 euros by 2008, privatisation of the telecommunications industry and the sale of Olympic Airways to a private airline. On the other side, the Pasok promised a new employment system focussing on young people that aimed to limit unemployment to a maximum period of six months, rebates for tax payers and companies, an increase in pensions, the creation of new hospitals and the institution of participatory democracy by the organisation of local referenda.

Some 77 per cent of the country's 9,794,594 registered voters cast ballots and according to reports from all over the country, the voting process ran smoothly.

The New Democracy (ND) won a comfortable 165-seat majority in the 300-seat Parliament, with some 45.3 per cent of the votes against 40.5% for the Pasok, which took 117 seats.

On 8 March 2004, Greek President Constantinos Stephanopoulos asked the leader of the New Democracy, Mr. Costas Karamanlis to form a new government. The new government, with Mr. Karamanlis as its Prime Minister was sworn in two days later.

On 18 March 2004, deputies elected to Parliament were sworn in on the first day of the new legislative session. They elected Mrs. Anna Psarouda-Benaki (ND) as their Speaker. It is the first time a woman is holding the post in Greece.
 
STATISTICS
 
Round no 1 (7 March 2004): Election results
Number of registered electors 9'794'594
Voters 7'408'374 (75.64%)
Blank or invalid ballot papers 166'816
Valid votes 7'241'558
 
 
Round no 1: Distribution of votes
 
Political Group Candidates Votes %  
New Democracy (ND) 3'360'424 46.40  
Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) 3'003'988 41.48  
Communist Party (KKE) 436'818 6.03  
Coalition of the Left and Progress (SYN) 240'240 3.26  
 
Round no 1: Distribution of seats
 
Political Group Total
New Democracy (ND) 165
Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) 117
Communist Party (KKE) 12
Coalition of the Left and Progress (SYN) 6
 
Comments:
Source:
- Ministry of the Interior, Directorate for International Relations of the Hellenic Parliament (28.02.2005)
- IPU Group (05.10.2005)
 
Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men: 261
Women: 39
Percent of women: 13.00
 
Distribution of seats according to age:
21 to 30 years 1
31 to 40 years 22
41 to 50 years 92
51 to 60 years 109
61 to 70 years 49
Over 70 years 5
Unknown 22
 
Distribution of seats according to profession:
Others       107
Lawyers       68
Doctors of Medicine       40
Economists       33
Professors       20
Engineers       17
Journalists/writers/publishers       15


 


<<< Return to the Historical Archive page of parliamentary elections results for GREECE <<<

Copyright © 1996-2007 Inter-Parliamentary Union