Galery

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The Central Electoral Committee of New Democracy officially announced the postponement of the elections for party leader. This is due to a software glitch in the online system, which hampers the counting of votes.

The situation provoked a sharp response on behalf of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He called the postponement of the election, "a black page in the history of our party", and stressed that the party should apologize to members and all Greek citizens. In a statement, Mitsotakis, in a rather peremptory tone, demanded that Marietta Giannakou immediately be appointed as interim president of New Democracy. She then will appoint a new chairperson of both the election commission and New Democracy's parliamentary group, with the latter not allowed to run for party leader. "What matters in a difficult time like this is the survival of New Democracy," Mitsotakis said dramatically.

Another presidential candidate, Adonis Georgiadis, also resorted to hawkish language. He made a statement from the election centre in Peristeri. Georgiadis called the mishap a fiasco and demanded the resignation of the Electoral Committee members, as well as of the other party officials who are in charge of the internal party elections. "There are people who are responsible for this fiasco, they have names and surnames, they must be found and asked to resign, the whole thing does no good to New Democracy," said Georgiadis. He argued that he had expressed concerns over the proper running of the elections to the party's Central Electoral Committee on Saturday evening, and got assurances that everything would be all right. "Those who think they will destroy New Democracy and leave SYRIZA out of control, are fooling themselves," he added.

The current New Democracy leader, Evangelos Meimarakis, left his hotel in Chania, Crete, without making statements. He had planned a morning walk around the city within his visit to the island, but the postponement of the election changed his agenda. Meimarakis was constantly in touch with his associates in Athens since early in the morning. He was also able to have a short meeting with some party people at his hotel.

Expect further details.