Bleak messages about PASOK elections

Only a few days before the intra-party elections, the focus turns to the local PASOK chapters, which are showing a picture of dissolution, and the messages from many secretaries to Hippocratous are preventing the operation of polling stations since local secretaries insist they cannot cope with the demands of the elections. Many organizations have closed their offices, other have taken down their signs, and in many cases local councils have resigned, leaving behind only the secretary of the area.

Thus, the problem is which municipalities will be selected in order to eventually set up the internal party polls.

The first effort by the elections organizing committee, although hardly feasible, will be to set up the polls in each Kallikrates municipality. This will limit the plethora of polling stations like in 2004 and 2007 and will remind voters of Kallikrates, one of the first legal instruments of Papandreou’s government.

The other idea is to have a polling station in most prefecture capitals. This will reduce costs and incidences of disapproval against the party. However, this would greatly reduce voter participation.

But in whatever way the elections eventually occur, the fear of incidents by outraged citizens, especially when they come to vote, will remain an issue for Hippocratous. It will be difficult to take measures to prevent such phenomena and there will be an attempt to promote the democratic nature of the process in order to show such disapprovals as reactionary moves.

Besides, this climate was conveyed by PASOK spokesman Panos Beglitis after yesterday's political council.