New Democracy waits to find out identity of new leader
There was a strong turnout in the run-off vote for the New Democracy leadership on Sunday as more than 300,000 conservative party supporters appeared to have cast ballots.
Some polling stations remained open past the 7 p.m. deadline to accommodate people who were queuing to vote for either former interim leader Evangelos Meimarakis or ex-administrative reform minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
It was estimated that around 320,000 people, or around 80 percent of those who voted in the first round last month, devoted part of their Sunday to have a say in who will lead the main opposition party.
Meimarakis led Mitsotakis comfortably in December’s first round and analysts suggested that the latter would have to win by at least a 10 percentage point margin at the Attica polling stations to stand a chance of beating the former leader and ex-defense minister.
There appeared to be no technical problems with the voting process this time around, after one aborted ballot last year and a long delay in the publication of confirmed results following the first round on December 20, which was contested by four candidates. Sunday's results were expected around midnight.
The only incident of note during Sunday’s election was members of the anarchist group Rouvikonas (Rubicon) raiding a polling station in the Athens suburb of Nea Philadelphia and destroying ballot papers. There were no injuries or arrests.
