PASOK voters prepare to elect new leader
Up to 70,000 PASOK supporters are expect to vote Sunday in the party’s leadership race, which is being contested by three candidates.
Voting will take place at some 350 electoral centers around the country between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. The winner is expected to be announced soon after the polls close. If none of the three candidates manages to get over 50 percent of the vote then a runoff election between the two leading hopefuls will have to be held.
The three PASOK MPs taking part in the contest are ex-ministers Fofi Gennimata and Andreas Loverdos, as well as the less experienced Odysseas Constantinopoulos.
Gennimata, the daughter of late PASOK official Giorgos Gennimatas, denied on Friday that she wants to “revive the old PASOK.” She insisted that her aim is to reinvigorate the party’s grassroots support. Also, she did not rule out cooperating with George Papandreou and the officials who left PASOK to form the Movement of Democratic Socialists in January.
Constantinopoulos, who was first elected with the party in 2009, is the youngest of the candidates at the age of 40 and claims that he represents the “new, responsible generation.” Unlike Gennimata, Constantinopoulos suggested that Papandreou no longer has a role to play in the party.
Outgoing leader Evangelos Venizelos has not commented on the leadership vote. He focused his attention on the government on Friday, accusing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of a “total lack of responsibility” and calling on him to sign an agreement with the lenders.
