Conservative New Democracy interim leader Evangelos Meimarakis stormed into the party’s 1st floor headquarters at Syngrou Avenue during the party’s central election committee (KEFE) meeting. He sought out his representative, Theodore Abatzoglou, and said, “Let’s go Theodore! We aren’t going to participate in a procedure that humiliates the party.”

Many believed that this reaction is akin to a withdrawal of Meimarakis’ candidacy in the upcoming elections, however his close coworkers say that this is not the case.

The reason for his outburst is the belief that the ND party secretary Andreas Papamimikos and the general director Kostas Tsimaras are planning to set up an electoral process that is not based on the principles of transparency.

“They are purposely biding their time to cover up for the monkeys that they are preparing with the company that they have already chosen to transfer money and contrive the results that they want,” say those who are close to Meimarakis. Furthermore, they maintain that Tsimaras had already found the organization he wants to count the votes and has “purposely leaked” reports against the current ND leader that wrongly state that he wants those who are not members of the party to pay a higher contribution in the elections being set up.

Following Meimarakis’ interruption of the meeting, a number of members left. Decisions agreed upon by the representatives of the other ND candidates – Adonis Georgiadis, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Apostolos Tzitzikostas – are as follows:
– The party website will announce an open tender for offers for the choice of company to take up the electoral process (just as Meimarakis had requested).
– There will be 1,300 ballots set up in 900 different areas, 10% less than those of 2009.
– There will be a set contribution of three euros per voter. Earlier, members in favor of Meimarakis had suggested a differentiation between regular members and others, whereas representatives of the other three candidates had rejected this.

The cost of the upcoming conservative party leadership will range from 500,000 to 600,000 euros. It is expected that there will be less voters than in 2009, when 781,000 took part in the proceedings.