Greek elections (a question)?

Question

Sorry for my ignorance....but does Greece have elections whenever they feel like it? In US, the national elections are every four years, and even the date is mandated...the first Tuesday in November. In Greece I assume things are different. How does it work? Elections are held me to etsi thelw??

Answer 1

At least Greeks count votes and the best one wins !
US can never be a model for elections : "me to etsi thelw" and "me to etsi goustaro" they "elect" the most useless one always.

Answer 2

First of all in the US your general election is a presidential election, Greece is a Parliamentary democracy. The parliament rules and the parliament decides on what will happen and a general election is viewed as a vote of confidence by the public but a set period may not expire. This can be upto 4 years (5 years in UK). As the ruling party is the party with the highest majority in the parliament and very rarely is it by a massive majority. Government works well. I suppose an american might ask what would happen if the entire government decides something thats really crazy, well it could happen but its a system of conscience. If the Prime minister suggests something crazy its likely enough members of his party will vote against him so he can't.

In america you have your balance between the president, congress and the supreme court which is fantastic on paper but doesn't work well in reality. For example as has happened many times in history, when Bill Clinton was president, Congress was majority Republican which meant a lot of his ideals that the public voted for never happened such as his health and child bills. George W Bush was president with a republican congress in his first term which is too powerful. There is actually no balance, either it doesnt work or its too much, there is an ability to corrupt. In a parliamentary system the ruling party has the ability to affect change, but not too drastically.

This is why when new countries emerge from the breakup of a nation such as Yugoslavia or a dictatorship is overthrown the USA will help draw up a constitution and a working system of government for that new nation and upto now have NEVER suggested a presidential system always a parliamentary system.

I personally find the American system fascinating and I applaud you for it, you just need to help your poor and the sick better.

Answer 3

Elections are normally every 4 years. but the government has the right to resign earlier (never later!), and so new elections are held. So basically the government can decide when during the 4 years the elections will take place.

By the way, don't put the US system as a model, because there the elections take place regularly but the president gets elected "me to etsi thelo" even if he has not got the majority of votes!

Answer 4

yiani is correct, greece has a parliamentary democracy. the president or parliament can call for early elections whenever they feel "as a show of confidence in the government".
england and italy (as well as many other countries) have this system as well.
the only annoying thing about it is you cant watch the daily news on TV during an election period without being bombarded with political news for 25 out of the 30 minute broadcast. :)

Answer 5

Nice question :-) As u know greeks are very smart :-) So every smart prime minister is a master in the "Art of War". Attack when its least expected ! This means that after the 3rd year (3.5 in most of the cases) the governing party checks through polls the public opinion. if the statistics say they r going to win... we have elections... if not, they start promising money to poor people - which always works. Simple and smart :-)
Btw, u probably dont know that members of the parliament are entitled to a life-time pension after one full 4-yr period. So some of them the ones that are not going to get elected in the new parliament are the only ones that are really opposed to early elections :-)

Answer 6

The electoral system of Greece is supposed to be for a four year term of ruling. However, it is the governments prerogative when it feels that the next elections are an easy game to shorten the time and proclaim elections before the end of term. One other case of forwarding the election date is when the governing party looses the 50% +1 of its power to declare premature elections.
Unfortunately, the parties involved, in the last 2 decades have abused heavily this prerogative for reasons of clearly their benefit, and once at least in this time backfired on them.
Me to etsi thelw dystyxws einai kai h diakyvernisi se polla sobara provlimata tou topou, kai me poniria prospathoun na paroun tin psifo tou politi kai oxi me sobara programmata ta opoia na akolouthisoun kai olas.

Answer 7

there are political procedures that must be followed, we cant say that it is when someone decides so-

thus it is a ...custom the latest years to have elections before the 4 years are completed!
in this way the government thinks (right or wrong I dont know) that will win elections again-it is a kind of ..trick!

but I dont agree - if this go on like this, then we should put the political period to 3.5 years not 4

Answer 8

they have nothing else to do so they keep telling us about when we r going to have elections.personally i think that the politic system in greece is totally scrood up and im sick and tired of all those-and i mean every single one of them!!!- who appear in tv and tell us stupid things!etsi tha paei i xwra mprosta????

Answer 9

Ela Domna mou,
Yes, me to etsi thelo, means they put us in this procedure,and nor,mally we had to have them in march...I still didnt understand why...projects, problems, always the same.
But one thing is sure...Nobody has done something good for this country, and this is sad...And nothing is going to be achieved once again...
Kisses