Meimarakis - Mitsotakis square off for ND leadership

Evangelos Meimarakis and Kyriakos Mitsotakis are to battle it out in a second ballot on January 10 to become New Democracy leader.

The two men were said to be clear leaders in the four-way election carried out on Sunday.
Former interim party leader Vagelis Meimarakis garnered the most votes but not an absolute majority, according to the party’s initial estimates. Former minister of Administrative Reform Kyriakos Mitsotakis placed second.
Whoever ends up leading New Democracy after the Jan. 10 runoff will be called to head the opposition against the country’s left-wing Syriza-led government at a critical juncture of Greece’s debt crisis.
New Democracy’s leader also faces the challenge of reviving a party that seems to have lost its way since failing to steer the country out of its crisis in 2014.
Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the governor of a province in the northern part of the country, and former Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis also ran for the leadership in Sunday’s election.
The party was left in disarray after it was forced to cancel its leadership election in late November due to technical problems.
The turnout in the first round of New Democracy’s elections was higher than expected.
It is estimated that some 400,000 people voted, which was more than the conservatives had expected and forced them to keep polling stations open beyond the original 7 p.m. deadline.