New Democracy wins Greek elections, ruling PASOK concedes defeat

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 08, 2004

New Democracy wins Greek elections, ruling PASOK concedes defeat

The main opposition New Democracy (ND)party won easily the general elections in Greece on Sunday, according to the latest preliminary results.

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The main opposition New Democracy (ND)party won easily the general elections in Greece on Sunday, according to the latest preliminary results.

New Democracy (ND) garners 48.58 percent, Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) 41.39 percent, Communist Party of Greece (KKE) 4.46 percent, while the other three small parties only 5 percent altogether.

"We stand before a clear and major victory for ND," Head of ND's Political Planning Giorgos Souflias told reporters. "The goal isto prove that it is a victory for all Greeks, a victory for all of Greece."

Meanwhile, the outgoing Minister of Culture Evaggelos Venizelos,PASOK member, accepted his party's failure in the elections.

"We will not hesitate to recognize reality and we will not fail to learn the lessons therein to the last paragraph," he said after the announcement of the exit polls.

He stressed that it is a major, clear victory for ND, and correspondingly a major, clear defeat for PASOK.

A lawyer and international affairs expert, 48-year-old ND leader Karamanlis won the elections on his second try after assuming the party's reins in 1997, and will be the first prime minister born after the divisive Greek civil war (1946-49).

Karamanlis is the nephew of Greek statesman Constantine Karamanlis, founder of the New Democracy (ND) party, prime minister in the '50s, '60s and again in the '70s, as well as a former president of the republic.

Karamanlis has not held a Cabinet portfolio because PASOK has been in power since 1981, excluding the period of 1990-1993, when a ND government under Constantine Mitsotakis was in power.

His career as MP began in 1989 at the age of 33 and continued for the next 15 years. Since 1999, he serves as a vice-president of the European People's Party (EPP) and in June 2002 was elected vice president of the International Democrat Union during the summit of the center-right and Christian Democrat parties in Washington.

Karamanlis studied at the Athens University Law School and continued with post-graduate studies at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston.

He is married to Natasa Pazaitis-Karamanlis and is the father of twins, a boy and girl.

The 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).

Source: Xinhua

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