The Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and the government Vice President Evangelos Venizelos met on Saturday and agreed to change the method of voting from the current proportional electoral system that has been in place since 1981, to voting directly for the individual candidate.
Aside from changing the method of election from a party list, as was the case since 1981, the two decided that the number of candidates on each ballot should also double and increase to 42.The two leaders agreed that the legislative change must be implemented immediately in order for it to come into effect in time for the upcoming elections for the European Parliament.
The Interior Minister Yannis Michelakis, who will submit the relevant bill in Parliament, commented on his Twitter account that “the people will have the first word as to who will represent us in the European Parliament”.
While the government maintains it is part of its plan to update the political system (which also includes the possibility of reducing the number of MPs from 300 to 200), the opposition has accused Samaras and Venizelos of adopting unscrupulous legalistic tactics in an effort to bolster their declining demographics and mask their upcoming defeat.
