Changes to the way in which presidents and councils in municipal communities are elected were introduced in a multidisciplinary law of the Ministry of the Interior, which was adopted on Holy Tuesday and published in the Official Gazette as Law 5043/2023.

In particular, Article 18 provides that, from the next municipal elections, municipalities with a permanent population of 201 or more will have a council of three. Today it refers to communities with more than 300 inhabitants. There are a total of 723 municipal communities with a population of 201 to 300 covered by the ordinance.

According to the new regulation, municipalities with a population of up to 200 inhabitants are managed by the president of the municipality, and with a population of more than 201 people – by the chairman of the council and council of the municipality. community.

The council of the municipality includes: a) three members, in municipalities with a population of 201 to 2000 inhabitants, b) five members, in municipalities with a population of 2,001 to 10,000 inhabitants, c) 11 members, in municipalities with a population of 10,001 to 50,000 inhabitants and d) 15 members, in municipalities with a population of 50,001 or more.

It is noted that municipal councils are not elected in the municipalities of the Attica region, with the exception of the municipalities of the regional units of the islands, East and West Attica.

The president of the municipality is elected by the first candidate from the combination that receives in the first round in the municipality an absolute or relative majority of all valid ballots. The remaining candidates from the same combination, in the order of the crosses received, are considered substitutes.

The Coordinating Committee of the Network of Communities of Greece expressed its disagreement with the resolution, as it requires the return of separate ballot boxes for the nomination of presidents and community councils.

How the president and council are elected

Under Article 37, the president of a municipality with a population of up to 300 inhabitants and councils of municipalities with a population of 301 to 2,000 inhabitants are elected by election in a particular municipality, whether they are part of a combination of a successful mayor or not. The places of councilors are distributed in proportion to the combinations that took part in the elections in a particular municipality, and in accordance with the number of valid ballots they received in it. The president of the three-member council is the councilor of the first combination in the municipal community to receive the most privileged crosses.

In municipalities with a population of 2001 or more that have councils of five, eleven or fifteen (depending on the size of the resident population of each municipality), the chairman is appointed by the first cross-counselor of the mayor combination, since by law the mayor combination receives 3 /5 Council of these municipalities.

Article 10 contains a special provision for the election of the chairman of a municipal council with more than 300 members, valid until December 31, 2023, i.e. the end of the current municipal term.

CE conformity

The provision represents the implementation of the decision of the Plenum of the State Council, which declared unconstitutional the provisions on the method of electing the president of municipalities with a population of more than 300 inhabitants by appointing a councilor of the first combination in the order.

With the new regulation, the order is restored, providing for the election of the president of the municipal community from all members of the council between the first two councilors from the first two combinations in the order of election.

This means that in those communities where more than 300 people live, the president was not elected in the combination that received more than 50% of the votes, in order to re-elect its chairman, it will be necessary to hold an extraordinary meeting of the community council.

Source: RES-IPE