Party to slip past vote ban
The Authority for the Protection of Personal Data said yesterday that it had rejected PASOK’s request for permission to note the names, gender, birth date, telephone number and ID card number of non-party members who will vote in George Papandreou’s election tomorrow. The state-appointed watchdog argued that, unlike party members, recording the names of non-party members would indicate their political beliefs to others. It would also imply that those not voting for Papandreou would not vote for PASOK in the elections, it said. The PASOK congress changed its charter to allow non-party members to be considered members for tomorrow’s vote. New Democracy spokesman Theodoris Roussopoulos charged: «The independent authority judged the process illegal and PASOK blamed the authority because it did not like its decision, saying that it will do what it believes to be legal… That’s PASOK.»
