EUROPEAN UNION

Greek parliament fails to elect president in second round

Greek parliamentarians have failed to elect a president in a second round of voting. Another failure in the decisive third round will lead to snap elections that could see an anti-austerity party take power.

The Greek parliament on Tuesday failed to elect government candidate Stavros Dimas as the country's new president in a second vote, raising the chances of snap general elections.

Dimas, who is the EU Environment Commissioner, scored just 168 votes, 32 short of the 200 votes required to win the post.

This now means that a third and final vote will be held on December 29. If Dimas fails to receive the necessary 180 votes in that round, it will automatically trigger early elections, the second in less than two years.

Unwelcome prospect

The prospect of such snap elections is an unwelcome one particularly to European Union and International Monetary Fund officials, who fear a victory by radical leftist party Syriza, which wants to renegotiate Greece's international bailout and roll back the austerity measures of recent years.

Syriza, which despite its fiscal reform plans says it still wants to keep Greece in the euro, leads slightly in opinion polls.

The conservative government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras needs opposition support to get Dimas elected, and Samaras on Sunday offered to hold early elections by the end of 2015 in a bid to get independent MPs on board.

The Greek stock exchange dipped by some two percent in the minutes following Tuesday's result.

tj/mg (AP, Reuters, AFP)