The Greek Parliament failed to elect on Wednesday the governments’ candidate for the presidency, Stavros Dimas.

The Greek Parliament failed to elect on Wednesday the governments’ candidate for the presidency, Stavros Dimas.

The former EU Environment Commissioner, who is a member of the center-right New Democracy party, received only 160 of the 200 votes required to be elected president.

Of the 300 MPs in the Greek Parliament, 160 voted in favor of Stavros Dimas.

From these 160 votes, 155 were from the coalition government's MPs: 127 from the center-right New Democracy party and 28 from the center-left PASOK party. The other five votes were from independent MPs.

A coalition of 135 opposition and independent MPs did not vote in favor of the government's proposed candidate. There were five abstentions.

The second vote will take place on Dec. 23 and the last vote on Dec. 29 -- a vote which will also determine the fate of the government.

According to the constitution, the first two rounds require 200 votes in the parliament to elect a president.

If this does not happen, there will be a third and crucial round that will require 180 votes in order to elect a president.

The prime minister's office released a statement just a few hours before the first round of voting saying that electing a president will help avoid “political turmoil that could prove fatal for the country's European course.”

The Greek presidential elections come a week after the Troika -- comprised of the European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund -- agreed to offer Greece a two-month extension on its bailout.