By Lina Giannarou

SYRIZA, the anti-bailout left-wing party led by Alexis Tsipras, on Sunday conquered many of PASOK’s longtime electoral strongholds, including Crete, Evia and Achaia, as well as the second Athens and Piraeus constituencies.

SYRIZA came first on Crete, soaring from 15.8 percent in May to slightly over 32 percent on Sunday.

Meanwhile, pro-bailout PASOK scored an all-time low on the island, finishing in third place with 18.5 percent of the vote. Indicatively, SYRIZA came first in Lasithi with 27 percent, up from 14 percent in May, while conservative New Democracy came second with 26.7 percent, compared to 14 percent in May. Tsipras’s party also scored a stunning victory in Hania, winning 33.7 percent of the vote, up from 17 percent in May. SYRIZA swept Rethymno too, sealing 28 percent. Furthermore, the leftist coalition won a comfortable victory in Iraklio, attracting 33.6 percent against 15.9 in the previous poll. Remarkably, PASOK won only one seat.

The same pattern emerged across the Attica region. SYRIZA’s share in the key second Athens constituency skyrocketed from 21.8 percent in May to 31.4 percent on Sunday, leaving ND in second place with 26.2 percent and PASOK in third with a scant 8.5 percent. SYRIZA’s victory was even more impressive in the second electoral district of Piraeus, where it came first with 36.3 percent (up from 23.8 percent), capturing two seats. ND’s 26.4 percent left the party in second place, while PASOK finished third with just under 10 percent.

SYRIZA also scored a big victory on Evia, garnering close to 30 percent against ND’s 24.6 percent. SYRIZA swept out PASOK in the Achaia electoral district, extracting 32.2 percent of the vote; 25.6 percent went to New Democracy as PASOK was limited to 13.4 percent.

In addition, Tsipras’s party conquered the island of Samos, a traditional KKE stronghold, winning over an impressive 25 percent of voters, leaving ND in second place with 24.6 percent. KKE saw its share fall to 18.3 percent from 24.7 in May.

SYRIZA won in Magnesia too -- a district that went to ND in May. Its share in this central Greece district skyrocketed from 18 to 30.7 percent. A similar showing was recorded in Xanthi, where SYRIZA won a comfortable 38.5 percent, outpowering ND, which finished second with 26.5 percent. SYRIZA also won in Viotia and all the Ionian islands except for Lefkada.