Members who didn’t vote hold SYRIZA key
With an estimated 70,000 not casting a ballot, the leadership election could still hang in the balance
The estimated 70,000 registered members of SYRIZA who did not vote on Sunday in the first round of the elections for a new leader could have a catalytic effect on the final outcome.
Even if some of them are just members “on paper,” with no active participation in the party processes, the mobilization of even a part of them could play a vital role in the result.
The campaign of Effie Achtsioglou, who was tipped as a firm favorite before the first round, still believes a turnaround is possible, to reverse the course of newcomer Stefanos Kasselakis, who scored a resounding upset, garnering 44.91% versus 36.18% for the former labor minister.
The 35-year-old businessman managed the seemingly impossible. At a time when the prefectural committees of SYRIZA had estimated the “ceiling” of participation at 60,000 voters, 148,821 voters turned out to cast their ballots, which in many precincts were not enough. Over 40,000 are new members and there is no doubt that the vast majority went to the polls for Kasselakis, even if his opponents dismissed him as having no connection with SYRIZA.
However, things remain quite complex ahead of the second round. The number of people registered in the registers after the 2022 party congress exceeded 170,000. Therefore, on paper it could indeed be assumed that about 70,000 did not go to vote. This number, however, is estimated to be unrealistic. “There are people who don’t even remember that they are party members,” a top official told Kathimerini.
About 30,000 are estimated to potentially be voters on September 24 and mobilize. It is clear that in order for Achtsioglou to be able to revive her campaign, she will attempt to activate this audience, which is more party-oriented and therefore likely to be brought closer to her.
Kasselakis succeeded, within a short period of time, in bringing several members of SYRIZA close to him, as he tried to make his own team within the party.
The purpose is obvious, given that after his possible assumption of the presidency, the fierce “battle” will ensue at the party congress for control of the new Central Committee.
He also managed to upset the senior top party officials, who had estimated with relative certainty that the new balance will be shaped according to their own “wants.”
According to many observers, it was not a victory for him, but a defeat for the old bureaucracy of SYRIZA.
