Pathogenic problems in the main opposition conservative New Democracy (ND) party of Greece came to the fore just days ahead for the marathon leadership race that ends on Sunday. Rather than focus on the party line, most of the ND focus is centering around interventions made by former ND prime minister Kostas Karamanlis with speculation over where the support of the former leader lies as well as telephone contact that the leader had with Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) PM Alexis Tsipras.

The reported verbal support of Karamanlis concerning Vangelis Meimarakis’ leadership bid caused party friction. Another candidate Apostolos Tzitzikostas reportedly met with Karamanlis and told private radio Real FM that when Karamanlis has something to say, “he talks straight.”

Amid party turbulence, the only positive step within the party is that telecoms provider Vodafon has pledged its certainty that the party elections will proceed as normal following the November 22 election fiasco that caused a delay in the election of a party leader due to technical problems. The mock trial of the telecoms system was marked with success.

Tzitzikostas said that if the process goes awry during the election process on Sunday there will be no ND on Monday. But even in this regard there is a difference of opinion with other party members stating that ND isn’t influenced by tech problems, and will manage to surpass these to win the confidence of the people yet again.

ND Party Secretary Andreas Papamimikos was critical of those who are doing all they can to ensure that ND elections don’t take place or who are trying to mislead members so that there isn’t the best possible participation. “They want a small, closed party,” he said.

The prognostics

So far, pundits believe that Vangelis Meimarakis and Apostolos Tzitzikostas have a lead over the other two candidates – Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Adonis Georgiadis. Meimarakis has stated that if he comes in second during the first round, he will abandon the race. On his part, Tzitzikostas had said that he would look at the amount of difference between the first and second candidates before making such a decision.