Political systems

Under Britain’s constitutional monarchy, the king is head of state but must remain politically neutral and leave policy-making to the elected Parliament

A U.K. parliamentary committee was expected to publish this week a report on whether former Prime Minister Boris Johnson misled lawmakers over lockdown-flouting parties at his office, after lawmakers met Monday to conclude their inquiry.

More than 54 million people on May 14 dropped their votes in over 197,000 ballot boxes set up across the country for the presidential runoff elections.

Though the voting process ended at 5 p.m., citizens waiting to cast ballots at polling booths during the deadline voted in turns under the supervision of attendants.

The 300 MPs elected on May 21 were sworn in Sunday afternoon.

The new Parliament, in which no party achieved an overall majority, will elect a Speaker and deputy speakers Monday. It will then be dissolved by presidential decree, either Monday or Tuesday, and new elections proclaimed, for June 25.

National elections on June 25 in Greece will be held under the system of "reinforced" proportional representation, which differs from proportional representation that the May 21 national ballot was held under, in that it allocates bonus seats in Parliament. 

The number of votes cast in the ballot boxes set up abroad for the presidential election runoff has already surpassed the first round's figures, though the voting continues at the customs gates till May 28, when the runoff will take place at home.

Voting ended at the diplomatic missions abroad on May 24 for the presidential election runoff, slated for May 28 at home, while citizens abroad can still cast their votes at border gates.

The Supreme Election Council (YSK) has reinstalled ballot boxes at 167 points in 151 representative offices across 73 countries for the runoff election.

Nearly 500,000 Turkish citizens living abroad have cast their ballots in the presidential election runoff in just one day, causing long queues at the country's foreign representations.

Sinan Ogan, Turkey's nationalist presidential candidate who finished third in Sunday's election, said he could only support main opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the runoff if he agrees to offer no concessions to a pro-Kurdish party.

Greece has made the right choice to encourage the European orientation of its Balkan neighbors, based on the assessment that the prospect of their integration also functions as a guarantee of peace.