Greek Polls Round 2 Bring Conservatives to the Fore

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Photo source: @kmitsotakis / twitter

Candidates of the conservative New Democracy party clinched most regional and municipal positions in the second round of Greek elections on Sunday, which saw only one in three voters go to the polls leaving Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza party defeated.

After the first loss in last Sunday’s European Parliament vote, Tsipras called snap elections tentatively scheduled for July 7.

Opposition New Democracy candidates were elected in 11 of the country’s 13 regions and in most of Greece’s main municipalities including Athens, Thessaloniki and Piraeus.

According to the final results: Kostas Bakoyannis, the son of former Athens mayor and ex-foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, was elected Athens mayor with 65.2 percent of the vote, 30 points ahead of his rival. Bakoyannis was previously regional governor of Central Greece, and had served as mayor of Karpenissi.

Mayors elected: Thessaloniki: Kostas Zervas; Patras, Konstantinos Peletidis; Heraklion, Vassilis Lambrinos; Piraeus,  Yannis Moralis; Larissa Apostolos Kalogiannis; Volos, Achilleas Beos; Peristeri, Andreas Pachatourides; Rhodes, Antonis Kabourakis; and Ioannina; Moisis Elisaf, Greece’s first Jewish mayor.

With regards to the regions of Greece:

• 

  George Patoulis

  George Patoulis of New Democracy was elected Attica regional governor, winning 66.2 percent of the vote over his Syriza rival Rena Dourou,

• Region of Western Greece, Nektarios Farmakis,
• Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Christos Metios,
• Peloponnese Region, Panagiotis Nikas,
• Region of Central Greece Sterea Ellada, Fanis Spanos,
• Ionian Islands Region, Rodi Kratsa Tsagaropoulou,
• Region of the North Aegean, Constantinos Moutzouris,
• Region of Western Macedonia, Giorgos Kasapidis,
• Region of Epirus, Alexandros Kakrimanis,
• Region of Thessaly, Kostas Agorastos,
• Central Macedonia Region, Apostolos Tzitzikostas,
• Crete, Stavros Arnaoutakis,
• South Aegean Region, George Hatzimarkos.

Of the total 331 municipalities in Greece, only in 16 were women elected in the mayoral positions compared to 15 in 2014, with the majority elected on the islands (seven) and in Northern Greece (three).

Abstinence Grows

It should also be noted that a massive 40.98 percent decided to abstain from voting in the first round of municipal elections increasing to 56.14 percent in round two on Sunday.

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras. Photo source: @atsipras / twitter

With regards to regional elections, 41.57 precent did not go to the polls in round 1, rising to 58.69 percent in round 2.

“In politics as in life it is also important to know how to lose, as well as to stand up and fight,” said PM Tsipras once the conclusive results were announced on Sunday night.

“We are now gathering our forces to fight the mother of all battles, the national elections,” he said.