Tajani wins first round in election for EP Pres.

BRUSSELS, Jan 17 (KUNA) -- Italian Member of Parliament Antonio Tajani won the first round of voting for the European Parliament Presidency Tuesday but failed to win an absolute majority and hence a second round of voting will be held later today in Strasbourg.
Announcing the results of the vote, outgoing EP President Martin Schulz said 718 votes were cast, 35 votes were invalid and hence there were 683 valid votes. This means that an absolute majority of 342 votes necessary for victory in the first round. The EP has 751 members in total.
Tajani who is the candidate for the Christian democrats, known as the European Peoples Party, received 274 votes and the candidate for the Socialist Group Gianni Pitttella came second with 183 votes.
Initially there were seven candidates for the post of the EP President, but the leader of the Liberals in the EP, Guy Verhofstadt, withdrew his candidature before the voting and announced that he has formed a coalition with the EPP, the biggest party in the EP.
Under EP rules, if there is no winner after the first ballot, the same candidates or new candidates can be nominated for a second round of voting. 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. (end) nk.mt