Government mulls change in electoral law to lower threshold for bonus seats to top party

With the prospect of single-party rule or the formation of a viable coalition government weakened by the EYP surveillance scandal, rampant rumours that have circulated for months that the government may change the electoral law to to lower the threshold for  the top party up to a 50-seat-bonus have been rekindled.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has repeatedly spoken of the need for a government with a strong parliamentary majority in order to secure political stability, but unlike many ND cadres he has never raised the prospect of changing the electoral law for a second time during his term in office,

In 2016, the previous SYRIZA government abolished any bonus parliamentary seats for the first party by passing a proportional representation electoral law.

Editorial: An error of history

In 2020, the year after he was elected, Mitsotakis changed SYRIZA's law to give bonus seats to the top party, but far fewer than the 50 or 40 seats that were automatically given in the past,

However, ND's amendment, by law, can only be implemented in the general election following the upcoming one, and it now appears that even the bonus seats in the 2020 law will not be enough to give New Democracy, which is ahead by a substantial margin in all opinion polls, an absolute parliamentary majority.

Past hopes that New Democracy could form a coalition government with Pasok have been dashed by the recent revelation of a National Intelligence Service (EYP) surveillance scandal, as EYP, which falls under the direct jurisdiction of the PM's office, was wiretapping the leader of the centre-left party when he was just a European Parliament deputy but also a top contender in the party leadership campaign.

Up to 50 bonus seats for top party, but...