1990 Greek presidential election

The 1990 Greek presidential election was an indirect election for the position of President of the Hellenic Republic was held by the Hellenic Parliament from February to May 1990.^[1][2]

The election took place following the "katharsis" period, during which a coalition government between conservative New Democracy and Leftist parties under Synaspismos indicted former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and four of his ministers over the Koskotas scandal. Additionally, memories remained vivid of the presidential election, during which Papandreou triggered a constitutional crisis to secure the presidency for his preferred candidate, Christos Sartzetakis, who was the presiding president of the election.

New Democracy's candidate was Konstantinos Karamanlis, who abstained in the first three rounds, while the other parties supported their candidates. As no candidate achieved the necessary votes in three consecutive rounds, the Greek Constitution required new national elections, which were held in April 1990. The elections paved the way for New Democracy's victory, however, its parliamentary majority was slim, making it challenging to elect a candidate of their choice for president. Karamanlis was elected president in the second round as the Constitution reduces the required electoral threshold in successive rounds when no candidate secures enough votes.

In the first phase, no candidate had sufficient votes to become president. Karamanlis refused to participate in this phase. In the first round, Sartzetakis, and the current president, received 151 votes with the support of PASOK and Synaspismos, while New Democracy abstained. In the second round, Sartzetakis received 21 votes since PASOK had a new candidate Giannis Alevras, who received 127 votes. In the third round, Sartzetakis received 21 votes again and Giannis Alevras 128 votes. Since no president was elected, new elections on 8 April took place under the Constitution.^[1][2]

In the second phase, there were three candidates, Karamanlis supported by New Democracy, Alevras from PASOK, and Konstantinos Despotopoulos from Synaspismos. The first round failed to point to a victor. Karamanlis received 153 votes in the second round, two votes above the threshold of 151, becoming president for a second time.^[3]