Greece Parliament failed to elect President leading to General Elections in January 2015

Greece Parliament failed to elect the President in the third and final round of voting held on 29 December 2014 leading to dissolution of the Parliament.

With the dissolution, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras announced the holding of General Elections on 25 January 2015.

In the crucial third and final round of voting the former European Commissioner Stavros Dimas, nominee of New Democracy party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, fell short of 180 votes needed to become the President. Consequently, the Parliament was dissolved.

He only managed to get 168 votes out of 300 seats of Parliament as 132 members abstained from voting.
The term of Prime Minister Samaras-led New Democratic Party coalition government ended almost 18 months before the end of the term of coalition government.

In the last General Elections held in 2012 in Greece, New Democracy party won the elections and formed the government.

Consequences
The Greece parliament failed to elect the president led to a new chapter of political uncertainty in the Greece. This is because opinion polls have consistently shown the left-wing main opposition Syriza party ahead. The party opposes the strict austerity measures imposed on Greece in return for bailout plan of 240 billion euro by European Union and International Monetary Fund.

After nearly crashing out of the euro in 2012, Greece returned to economic growth and ended a four-year exile from bond markets in 2014.

The impact of political uncertainty was clearly visible in the fall of main Athens stock market index by as much as 11 percent. The main banking stocks index also fell over 11 percent before recovering.