Greece Fails to Elect President in First-Round Ballot

The first round of a three-stage presidential election in Greece failed to elect a new head of state, an Agence France-Presse vote count showed.

The coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras failed to muster the required 200 out of 300 MPs to elect its nominee, former EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, meaning a second vote will be held on December 23.

Should a third and final round be required on December 29, Dimas will need just 180 votes for the post -- but a third failure will bring early elections.

The government brought forward the election from February, when it will be locked in delicate negotiations with the cash-starved country's creditors, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

But the gamble to stave off uncertainty during those talks may well backfire, given the government's slender 155-seat majority in the chamber -- and the rise of the opposition radical leftist party Syriza, which wants to end a four-year austerity drive and re-negotiate Greece's bailout.

Analysts on Wednesday said the government was hoping to win over half a dozen opposition deputies tonight, and a few more next week, before the deciding vote on December 29.

But a number of deputies it had counted on voted the opposite way, or did not attend the session.

Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said just hours before lawmakers were due to vote that rejecting his presidential nominee could prove "fatal to the European development of the country."