Athens, May 3 (IANS): Greece's Supreme Court has given the green light to a total of 36 parties, coalitions, and independents to run in the forthcoming May 21 general elections, but the far-right National Party-Hellenes (Greeks) was excluded.

The ruling on National Party-Hellenes, founded by jailed former lawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris, was based on a recent law that bans the participation in the electoral process of parties whose leadership has been convicted of crimes carrying a potential sentence of life imprisonment, such as running a criminal organisation, Xinhua news agency reported, citing Greek national news agency AMNA.

Kasidiaris has been convicted of directing a criminal organization as a leading member of the far- Right Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) party.

Golden Dawn was represented in parliament in the period 2012-2019, riding on Greeks' anger over the acute debt crisis in the country. Its leadership and dozens of members were arrested in 2013 after the murder of an anti-fascist musician, and convicted in 2020.

National Party-Hellenes could secure the 3 per cent threshold needed to enter the next parliament, according to several recent opinion polls.