The effect of the electoral law: a case study on Greece local elections

Greek local government is weak in competence and resources but strong in politics. In local elections, official party candidatures are not allowed, election results are nevertheless perceived as a barometer of national politics. Local voting is strongly personalized, mainly about local issues and the directly elected mayor. In recent elections, a proportional election system was introduced for the council and many of the newly elected mayors were afterward forced to cooperate with opposition lists and councillors. The lack of solid consensus culture, however, has sometimes led to problems of governability and plans to restore the old majoritarian system for the council have already been figured out. To resolve the issue a new electoral law (mixed- pr) will apply to the local elections of October, 2023. We simulate the 2019 elections outcome according the new law and discuss the difference of the outcome in the 332 municipalities. We try to discuss the effect of the electoral law on the voter [constraining or un-constraining] and the effect on the party system for the municipalities [reductive or non-reductive].