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The final stage of pre-election competition has started in Greece. Tomorrow, September 21, the TV battle between the political leaders will take place starting 8 PM and at the same time on Tuesday the two major opponents for the October-4-elections- the current premier and head of the conservative party Kostas Karamanlis and the president of the opposing socialists PASOK Georgios Papandreou. The rules for the TV debates will be under discussion until the last moment before air.

Tomorrow night the political leaders will face the journalists Maria Houkli from ERT, Pavlos Tzimas from Mega, Nikos Evangelatos from Antena, Andonis Sroider from Alfa, Emilios Liatzos from Star, Andreas Konstandatou from Alter and Sia Kosioni from Sky. Public television ERT studios will host the debate, and one of the major issues appeared to be the length of journalistic questions- whether to be 20 second as demanded by the politicians or 30 as the journalists wanted.

On Tuesday, the debate between Karamanlis and Papandreou will be held solely by Maria Houkli. It will last 75 minutes and will consist of five discussions, 15 minutes each, in the areas of: economy and development, social issues and education, state and public administration, environment and infrastructure and foreign affairs. Both leaders will have 3 minutes to answer a question, 3 -to answer a clarifying question and another 2 for a second clarifying question.

The battle between New Democracy and PASOK leaders is highly anticipated since it is seen as the last chance for Karamanlis to shift the balance in his party’s favor, which is considerably lagging in sociological surveys. Georgios Papandreou on the other hand sees an opportunity for securing front positions and ensuring a victorious end of the October 4 elections.