The ultranationalist Golden Dawn (GD) party announced that it will abstain from voting on the relevant legislation to change the electoral law, leaving 179 deputies in favor and 102 against. This means that the SYRIZA-led government will fail in its efforts to scrape together the 200 votes needed for the changes to be passed through with a super-majority so that the changes could apply straight away after the next elections.
The new legislation includes cutting the 50-seat bonus for the winning party and other changes. The 179 MPs in favor of the changes include the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) ruling party and its junior coalition partner Independent Greeks (ANEL), the Greek Communist KKE party and the Union of Centrists as well as independent deputies Nikos Nikolopoulos and Thanasis Theoharopoulos.
Deputies against the draft legislation are from the conservative main opposition New Democracy party, the socialist PASOK and centrist To Potami as well as three independent MPs that have already stated that they will not vote for the proposed changes.
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