2023 Greek legislative election

The electoral law in effect for the 2023 legislative election is to be the one voted in 2016 by the second last legislature, where SYRIZA held a plurality.[2] This is due to a constitutional provision on amendments to the electoral law: a two-thirds majority (200 or more votes of the Vouli) is necessary for the law to take immediate effect, and for want of such a supermajority – an electoral law comes into effect only in the second-next election.

SYRIZA's 2016 law is a switch back to simple proportional representation. It ditched the 50-seat majority bonus, such bonus having been in place in various forms since 1990.

In January 2020, soon after returning to power, New Democracy, which has always been a proponent of majority bonuses since 1974, passed a new electoral law to reinstate the bonus, albeit under a very different formula. The party list coming first would receive 20 extra seats (down from 50, with the remaining seats up from 250 to 280), with a new sliding scale disproportionally helping larger party lists: those receiving between 25% and 40% of the vote would receive one seat for every half percentage point in this range (up to 30 seats), before the proper proportional distribution begins. A winning party could receive up to 50 extra seats. This 2020 law also lacked the supermajority to take immediate effect, and as a result, will take effect only in the next election after 2023.[3]

Compulsory voting will be in force for the elections, with voter registration being automatic.[4] However, none of the legally existing penalties or sanctions have ever been enforced.[5]

On 8 February 2023 Parliament voted to prohibit parties led nominally or actually by convicts from running in the elections, a provision possibly applicable in the case of National Party – Greeks party. New Democracy and PASOK voted for the law, while the Communist Party of Greece, Greek Solution and MeRA25 voted against, with Syriza voting present.[6][7]