New Democracy declares its ballot lists

Without any particular surprises, the published lists of the New Democracy party were publicized on Tuesday evening, with 412 nominations for the 56 regions of the country. Until the last moment there were significant obstacles, while the candidates were many and there had to be a selection.

ND leader Samaras will be a candidate in the regions of Messinia and Magnesia. In Kilkis, Mr. George Symplidis will be a candidate, as well as former minister Savvas Tsitouridis.

Former PM Kostas Karamanlis will be a candidate in Thessaloniki’s first district as expected. Included in the ballots are formerly expelled and currently remorseful MPs, including Mrs. Eliza Vozenberg.

Also included are “Vatopedi” MPs Evangelos Basiakos in Boeotia and Petros Doukas in the rest of Attica. Expelled PASOK MP in Boeotia Aria Agatsa is also taking part in the region’s electoral clash. Mrs. Olga Kefalogianni moves from Rethymno to the first district of Athens while her place is taken by another family member, Yiannis Kefalogiannis. Mr. Thanassis Gianopoulos also moves from Fthiotida to the second Athens district.

First Piraeus district for the former secretary of Mr. Samaras, Mr. Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos, and in the second district of Piraeus his colleague Mr. Failos Kranidiotis. In the same region, former Olympiakos player Tasos Mitropoulos is to be on the ballot, while Mr. Antonis Antoniadis’ name will show up for the second district of Athens as well as Mr. Renos Charalampidis, Sofia Voultepsi, Tania Iakovidou, Anna Karamanli and Despoina Bakali.

Political families are again represented by new faces. In Corinthia, the son of Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Christos Dimas, in Karditsa Mr. Nikos Anagnostopoulos and Mr. Pavlos Sioufas, while Mr. Dionisis Papadoggonas will be in the first district of Athens ballots.

There was a jam for the Kefallonia ballot since Messrs. Loukeri, Alivizatos and Kouris had vetoed Mr. Papadatos. In the end, Mr. Papadatos was included in the ballots, while the other three are now absent because of that choice.

In his statement, the party spokesman mentions that “Today, we present the complete ballot lists of the New Democracy party. There was a great supply of candidates throughout Greece. It was impossible to include them all. The renewal is evident, nearly half are new faces, while much emphasis was given to those emerging from our youth and young scientists; we gave opportunities to many young people. And we have a great selection for voters to choose from. The renewal will ultimately be up to them.

Mrs. Foteini Arabatzi is included in the Serres ballot (former wife of PASOK Minister Giannis Magriotis).

According to data provided by the party, in the eight prefectures of Korinthia, Drama, Serres, Imathia, Pella, Karditsa, Kefalonia and Lakonia the submitted nominations were three times as many as the positions. The renewal touches 60%, while all social classes including the unemployed are represented.

“A clear mandate for effective governance” was requested today by ND President Antonis Samaras during the first meeting of the Election Committee of his party, where he described the basic organizational policies and directions on the road to elections.

The main slogan of the party is “Greece can and will succeed”, and the main goal of “a clear majority, to govern with unrestricted hands and implement our program without compromises with those that brought us to this crisis”.

Mr. Samaras announced today that the party lists will be released today, with 412 candidates for 56 constituencies Ballots have been updated, according to Mr. Samaras, since half of the candidates will be new. There is an emphasis on youth, people coming from ONNED, young scientists. “We give much room for choice to voters who will have the opportunity to choose, because eventually they will be the ones responsible for renewal”, he said.

Samaras also announced the creation of an Executive Election Committee, which is headed by Mr. Evangelos Meimarakis in which, among others, there will be participation by Menelaos Daskalakis, Lefteris Zagoritis, Phillipos Tavris, Andreas Papamimikos, Leonidas Kouris, Kostas Zontanos and Dimitris Karagkounis.

Samaras presented the five key objectives of the elections:

- The first objective is “to reverse the climate of despair and misery in Greek society. Greece can and will succeed”.
- The second objective is to “show how to do it. Our plans give weight to recovery with social cohesion and structural changes”. He added that constitutional reform is going to be promoted, while he announced that in Zappeion on Thursday he will present the plan for the economy, the main pillar of growth, while next Thursday he will present the rest of the ND government program.
- The third objective, stated Mr. Samras is to “Depict our differences with others… We do not state that money exists, we are different from PASOK who brought us to the crisis, but also from the Left which has not identified its mistakes and lacks proposals. We also differ from other smaller parties who play with the peoples’ despair and act as PASOK’s lifelines”.

Mr. Samaras stated that “we ask to make changes to the Memorandum, to enable the country to reach its objectives”.

- The fourth objective as stated by the ND president is to convince them that we stand out and show them a way out of the crisis. “This tough undertaking requires that our hands be unrestricted. We ask for a clear mandate, to be a responsible government and implement our entire program without compromising with those who brought us to this crisis”.
- The fifth objective is “to speak sincerely to the people, develop our proposals for recovery and security, combat illegal immigration and reoccupy our cities”.

Greece needs a strong mandate and a stable government, Mr. Samaras said, adding that “Greece was attacked by sycophants; give us the power to change Greece, Greece can and will succeed”.