April 9, 1959
EDA’S STRENGTH: The Interior Ministry has announced that, during his press conference this week, Interior Minister Evangelos Kalantzis commented on the reduction in votes gained by the United Democratic Left (EDA) in last Sunday’s municipal elections compared to its results in the May 1958 parliamentary elections. EDA’s share of the vote in the local elections was down by about 7 percent and, in electorates where it supported the Liberals’ candidates, the reduction for both parties was over 17 percent. Those percentages reduced EDA’s strength by 18 percent in comparison to last year’s parliamentary elections. The combined Liberals-EDA tickets scored losses of over 31 percent. Kalantzis said that last Sunday the people had been asked to either criticize the government, which had refused to politicize the local elections, or support it. The government had stated that voters should choose municipal candidates without any consideration of their political affiliations. The election result was a categorical criticism of the opposition. The people clearly went with the government, in that they found no reason to wage any political battle against it, having so recently given it their mandate.
