By Nawab Khan
BRUSSELS, Jan 16 (KUNA) -- The European Parliament (EP) will elect its new president on Tuesday.
The EP is the only directly-elected institution of the European Union (EU).
The 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent the EU's 500 million citizens. They are elected once every five years by voters from across the 28 EU Member States.
But the term of office for President, Vice-Presidents, Quaestors and committee Chairs is two-and-a-half years. So the elections for these posts are held twice, at the beginning of a parliamentary term and at mid-term.
The EP has been gaining power over recent years. Together with the Council of Ministers, the EP adopts or amends proposals from the European Commission and also adopts the EU's budget.
On Tuesday, 17 January, MEPs during the full session in the French city of Strasbourg will elect a successor to current president Martin Schulz who has decided not to run for a third term in office.
This will be followed by the vote for the 14 vice-presidents.
On Wednesday 18 January, MEPs are scheduled to elect five quaestors who are responsible for administrative and financial matters directly affecting MEPs.
The election is done using a secret ballot. MEPs mark their preferred candidate on a ballot paper and place the vote in a ballot box.
A candidate getting an absolute majority of the votes cast (50% + 1) is elected. Blank or spoiled ballot papers are not counted.
If there is no winner after the first ballot, the same candidates or new candidates can be nominated for a second round of voting under the same conditions. This can be repeated a third time if necessary.
If no-one is elected at the third ballot, the two highest scoring candidates go to a fourth ballot, where the winner is decided by simple majority. If there is a tie, the older candidate is declared the winner.
So far there are seven MEPs who have announced they are running for the post of the EP President.
Eleonora Forenza from Italy, (European United Left-Nordic Green Left Group), Jean Lambert from the UK (Greens/European Free Alliance), Gianni Pittella from Italy (Socialists&Democrats), Antonio Tajani from Italy (European People's Party), Guy Verhofstadt from Belgium (Liberals), Helga Stevens from Belgian (European Conservatives and Reformists Group) and Laurentiu Rebega from Romania (Europe of Nations and Freedom Group, the extreme-right wing party of Marine Le Pen).
According to a forecast published by the Brussels-based think tank VoteWatch, the candidates of the two largest groups in the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella (S&D) and Antonio Tajani (EPP), are certainly the favorites to access the final run-off.
Tajani, an ex-spokesman for former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, is expected to get 214 votes and Pitella 192 votes in the first round.
According to VoteWatch data, Tajani would win the election if every MEP were to participate and would vote according to the political positions expressed in the EP over the last 2 years and a half.
Pittella would gather the full support of the left-wing parties (GUE-NGL, the Greens and S&D), as well as approximately two thirds of the Liberal group members. But for Pittella, this would not be enough to secure him the victory. Tajani would still win the elections due to the support of the majority of anti-EU MEPs in the Parliament (Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, and ENF) as well as some Nordic and Germanic members in the EP.(end) nk.tg