New Democracy party wins elections; new gov't expected on Tuesday
08/03/2004 02:44:18

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New Democracy (ND) party breezed to a comfortable victory over rival Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) in Sunday's general elections in Greece with a 5.62 percent lead.
ND polled 46.13 percent of the vote to PASOK's 40.51, with 78.73 percent of the ballots counted nationwide at presstime early Monday morning - a result that makes 48-year-old Costas Karamanlis the next -- and youngest ever -- Greek prime minister.
ND secures a significant majority of about 167 seats against 116 for PASOK.
A new government is expected to be sworn-in on Tuesday.
The Communist Party of Greece ranked a distant third garnering 5.61 percent and securing 11 seats, while the Coalition of the Radical Left received 3.09 percent, a fraction over the 3.00 percent margin needed to enter Parliament. It secures 6 seats in the House. The Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) mustered 2.06 percent and the Democratic Social Movement (DHKKI) got 1.70. Karamanlis, the namesake and nephew of Greek statesman Constantine Karamanlis, won the premiership on his second try after assuming the party's reins in 1997. He lost the April 2000 elections by a mere 70,000 votes. The ND leader will also be the first prime minister born after the divisive Greek civil war (1946-49).
Conversely, newly elected PASOK leader George Papandreou, the former high-profile Greek foreign minister, failed to follow in the footsteps of his late father, three-time premier and PASOK founder Andreas Papandreou. In his first comments to a crowd of reporters and supporters at the Zappeion Hall, next to the Parliament in downtown Athens, the prime minister-elect promised to live up to the voters' trust.
''I am in politics to contribute; now that the citizens' decision has been expressed; I offer my commitment to meet their (citizens) trust, and to fulfil the agreement we have jointly signed,' Karamanlis said.
In pointing to a standing Greek foreign policy concern, he also promised to work for a 'just, workable and European solution' for Cyprus, less than two months before the divided island republic becomes a full European Union member.
The more-or-less regularly scheduled elections come only months before the Olympic Games return to the land where they were born during antiquity and to the city that hosted the first Games of the modern era (1896). Tens of thousands of ND supporters took to the streets of Athens and other major cities moments after the first exit polls showed a clear and sizeable lead for the centre-right party.
Papandreou's run for the premiership came almost two months after two-time Prime Minister Costas Simitis announced he would step down after the elections, in the process resigning as the ruling party's president eight years after he succeeded Andreas Papandreou. The younger Papandreou stood alone for PASOK's leadership in early February.