Greek election declared null & void by Athens Bar Association


After all the excitement surrounding the nail-biting June 17th Greek election which resulted in New Democracy beating Syriza by a whisker, I’m just hearing that the Athens Bar Association (DSA) has declared it to be null and void due to the 2001 census being used instead of the recent 2011 one. This means that immigrants who have settled in Greece and are entitled to vote were deprived of the right to do so. Immigrants are more likely to vote left and their disenfranchisement means that the party of austerity and cuts should not have won.

The DSA statement, on The Slog website, says:

IOANNIS ADAMOPOULOS, President of the Athens Bar Association (DSA).
EXTREMELY SERIOUS CONTITUTIONAL FAILURE

‘The number of parliament members for every constituency being defined by presidential decree based on the legal population of the constituency that results according to the latest census, the results of the latest census are considered published based on the data gathered by the relevant services, one year after the date the census actually took place”.
In this case, the last census was completed by the National Committee of Statistics (ELSTAT) on 24th May 2011 – a date which is official, and confirmed beyond any doubt by a press release from ELSTAT.
Therefore, as a year has already passed since the last day of the completion of the above mentioned census, the number of parliamentary seats in every constituency should be defined based on the legal population of these constituencies, as derived, according to this census.
An extremely serious constitutional failure has occurred, as we estimate that substantial changes have occurred in the population distribution in every constituency in comparison with the previous census of 2001.
Not only the redistribution of the parliamentary seats in every constituency but also the redefinition of parliamentary representation of every party, is possibly at risk. In view of all the above, the DSA expresses its deep institutional concern regarding the risk of an acute constitutional crisis which is expected to cause damage to the function of the democratic institutions.’
This is, of course, not the first time that actions or omissions by ELSTAT required further investigation and criminal evaluation. We remind readers that already, since 29th September 2011, DSA has filed a law suit with regard to very serious offences committed by ELSTAT concerning the illegal overstatement of the revised deficit of 2009 to 15.4%, as a result of which we now see the subjection of Greece to the current Memorandum and the subsequent imposition of austerity and other measures on the Greek People.’’

If this turns out to be true, will they have to run another election or will they soldier on?

Madam Miaow says … visit Anna Chen’s website here:

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