Main opposition interim New Democracy (ND) party leader Evangelos Meimarakis is to remain as party leader following crisis talks that took place within the conservative party until late on Monday night. At midnight last night, he said during an interview that he is only interested in a debate with one fellow candidate – Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the regioanl governor for Western Macedonia. Meanwhile, the party’s central electoral committee (KEFE) postponed the election of a new party leader for December 13 after the serious technical problems on Sunday, November  22.

Meimarakis comments on Monday regarding the huge election fiasco the day before marked more turbulence within the conservative party’s ranks. In his comments, Meimarakis targeted his fellow-candidates for the leadership of the party as much as his predecessor, former prime minister Antonis Samaras who personally vouched for the IT firm that botched up the electronic voting system.

Meimarakis and the other candidates vying for the liberal leadership consider that most of the blame for the failed election process, due to technical problems, rests on the shoulders of the central electoral committee but they were given the vote of confidence to meet on Monday and find a new IT company that would be able to handle the procedure.

On Monday, Meimarakis had volunteered his resignation on the condition that the other three candidates also forego any position of responsibility that would afford them undue power as candidates. Two of the candidates – Adonis Georgiadis and Kyriakos Mitsotakis – stepped down from their positions, however Tzitzikostas refused to step down, drawing criticism upon himself.

Hours after Meimarakis called for the resignation of all candidates from their posts, Mitsotakis released a prophetic letter from November 11 addressed to Meimarakis that warned that system dysfunctions could pose a risk during the party’s election process.