Greece’s conservative main opposition New Democracy (ND) party failed to elect a party leader on Sunday, December 20. This means that a runoff vote is to take place on January 10 after former interim party leader Vangelis Meimarakis garnered most of the votes but not the absolute majority according to the party’s initial estimates as official results won’t be available until Monday afternoon. Regardless of the exact results, it will be Meimarakis and Kyriakos Mitsotakis who will enter a scramble to gather the voters of Apostolos Tzitzikostas – governor of a province in the northern part of the country – and former health minister Adonis Georgiadis who lagged behind the other candidates in the leadership race.

More than 400,000 New Democracy supporters arrived to the voting centers in droves on Sunday, surpassing the 200,000 voters expected. Images of huge lines where members had to wait for more than two hours to cast their vote were common and viewed as a huge success for the party that was left in shambles after it was forced to cancle its leadership election on November 22 due to technical problems.

The ballots were supposed to have closed at 7 p.m. but an extension was granted to allow the last ND voter a chance to cast the ballot.

The huge turnout from around Greece may have worked against Tzitzikostas who is a governor of a province in the northern part of the country. That factor, coupled with speculation that former prime minister Kostas Karamanlis had given his support to the candidacy of Meimarakis (though this was not outrightly stated), helped put Meimarakis ahead of the other candidates. Though a front-runner with a percentage expected to be between 30-40%, Meimarakis did not gather more than 50% of the votes that would have prevented a second round of votes.

For a while, Mitsotakis and Tzitzikostas were neck-to-neck in popularity, but it was Mitsotakis that won the second position in the end with a small percentage point. Mitsotakis thanked the 400,000 citizens who showed up to vote and invited them to join forces in the second round for a new era in the ND.

There was disappointment in the Tzitikostas camp regarding his loss. Admitting defeat at dawn, he thanked the 400,000 voters that showed up to cast their ballots and show the strength of the party. Sources close to Tzitzikostas point to the change in the wind during the last week of the elections when leaks came from the environment of Karamanlis regarding his support of Meimarakis that led to a turn in the Northern area where Tzitzikostas is a regional head but where Karamanlis also enjoys great support.

Adonis Georgiadis from the party’s right faction was a wild card from the start, despite enjoying the support of former prime minister Antonis Samaras. Despite being outspoken, he said that he will make his announcement at the end when the official results come through.

Now, the derby is on between Meimarakis and Mitsotakis in a rush to gain the votes of those who had cast ballots for Tzitzikostas and Georgiadis.

Whoever wins the next round on January 10, will then head the main opposition against the country’s left-wing SYRIZA-led government at a crucial point in the debt crisis. The leader will hold great influence when bearing in mind that the country’s coalition holds a narrow majority of just three seats in the 200-seat parlaiment and needs to overcome huge hurdles over the coming months such as pension and labor reform and more taxes.