Cliffhanger Election's Second Round

A series of difficult electoral bouts are expected to be literally cliffhangers in some of the regions, as well as some of the country's municipalities. For those who like numbers, 212 municipalities, and  12 regions are still “up for grabs.”

The pinnacle of these races is, of course, the Attica region.

With SYRIZA's Rena Dourou passing to the second round with 23.75% and incumbent region governor Yiannis Sgouros trailing with 22.16%

Ms Dourou expects to gather in some of the voters of also-runs communist Thanasis Pafilis (10.39% in the first round), Independent Greeks' Pavlos Haikalis (7.09%), Ecoogists' Antonis Gakis (2.24%), ANTARSIA's Despoina Koutsoumba (2.09%) and DIMAR's Sophia Giannakaki (1.96%), because of their anti-memorandum affiliations.

At the same time, Mr Sgouros has well grounded hopes that he will garner the voters of Giorgos Koumoutsakos (14.44%), Thanos Tzimeros (2.98%), and Petros Mantouvalos (1.99%)

The voters of Golden Dawn's Ilias Panayotaros (11.26%) remain an enigma, as no one knows if they will abstain, giving an advantage to the frontrunner, or if they will vote, and for whom?

Western Greece region
The race in Western Greece is highly unpredictable with independent candidate (hailing from PASOK) Apostolos Katsifaras got 23.09% as against the other candidate Andreas Katsantonis (from ND) who got 19.88%.
Ionian Islands region
The battle for the Ionian Islands will be difficult with incumbent governor Spyros Spyrou already having got 21.81%, and his opponents trailing slightly by 20.5%. No safe predictions can be made as the stance of former ND deputy Alexandros Desillas, Christos Anthis, and maverick PASOK member Giorgos Kaloudis is hard to fathom.

South Aegean region

Giorgos Hatzimarkou supported by ND has passed to the second round with 35.69%, and incumbent governor Giorgos Mahairidis, who is a PASOK backed independent with 32.1%.
North Aegean region
This region is also a contested hotbed, with Christina Kalogirou having so far got 31.52%, and incumbent governor Athanasios Yakalis with 25.88%.
Hotly contested municipalities

Athens is of course the municipality all eyes are riveted on, with incumbent mayor already soliciting 21.06% in the first round and his opponent, SYRIZA backed, Gavriil Sakellaridis 20%, the battle is expected fierce. The support of New Democracy towards Mr Kaminis will is expected to weigh in disproportionately, as many of the runners up are affiliated with ND. Yet there is still great uncertainty as to what the voters of Nikitas Kaklamanis and Ilias Kasidiaris are going to do.

In Piraeus, the battle between incumbent Vasilis Mihaloliakos (31.2%) and Yannis Moralis (33.28%) is expected to be scathingly hot, as already allegations of improper behavior are already flying, involving illicit voter solicitation and raucous behavior at polling booths.

In Patra the battle is between communict backed Kostas Peletidis that got 25.06% in the first round as against Kosta Christopoulos supported by ND with 23.94%.

Finally, Larisa will be fought for between ND supported R. Kalariotou (23.24%) and A Kalogiannis (22.62%) supported by SYRIZA and the ecologists.