At 19.00 Greek time (17.00 gmt) Greek lawmakers head to the polls in the first round of presidential elections. The ruling coalition of Pasok and New Democracy are expected to lose this first round as they are very unlikely to reach the 200 votes needed for their candidate Stavros Dimas to win. They currently have 155 seats and have been busy canvassing the many other parties for support. They are expecting to get around 161 votes.
To stop the government from calling a general election if they fail to elect a president they will need 180 votes in the final vote on Dec 29th. There is another vote on Dec 23rd but there’s not much emphasis being placed on that by the press and markets.
While today’s vote is unimportant with regards to a win the amount of votes they get will determine how much of a struggle it will be to win by the final vote and will raise expectations of a general election.
On the ground recent polls have had the opposition Syriza party ahead but their lead has been dwindling of late.
Anything less than 160 might be viewed negatively but if they score less than the 155 votes they hold it would signal big trouble.
At least it will be some pre-match entertainment before the FOMC
