Hellenic Parliament to elect new President of the Republic in special session on Tuesday, former FM Papoulias the uncontested candidate

   

   

   

   

    The Parliament of Greece convenes on Tuesday to elect a new President of the Republic, ahead of next month's expiry of current President Costis Stephanopoulos' second and last term in office. Veteran politican and former foreign minister Karolos Papoulias, the uncontested candidate for the post, is expected to be elected with an overwhelming majority in the 300-member unicameral House during Tuesday's session, which is exclusively devoted to the Presidential election.

    Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis nominated Papoulias, a one-time top cadre with the PASOK party, late last year, while main opposition leader and PASOK president George Papandreou immediately voiced his support for the choice.

    The maximum number of votes by deputies from ruling New Democracy and main opposition PASOK that Papoulias can receive is 282, more than enough to send him to the presidential mansion as the successor to Costis Stephanopoulos. A tally of more than 269 votes - the number received by Stephanopoulos on his re-election on Feb. 8, 2000 out of 298 MPs present - would be a record.

    Stephanopoulos' second five-year term concludes on March 11, 2005.

    Conversely, Parliament's two smaller parties, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Coalition of the Left (Synaspismos), are expected to propose another candidate at the last minute. Nonetheless, deputies of those two parties are unlikely to vote for Papoulias, and are expected to simply state their presence during the roll call vote. Two hundred votes during a first round are necessary to elect a President of the Republic.

    If elected, Papoulias will be the sixth President of the Republic since the restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974, following Mihalis Stasinopoulos, Constantine Tsatsos, Constantine Karamanlis, Christos Sartzetakis and Stephanopoulos.