The main opposition party New Democracy is holding elections for a new president on Sunday, 22nd of November, with about 250,000 to 300,000 party members and supporters expected to participate in the process.

Although there is an expectation that party supporters will vote en masse, the four candidates want to galvanize support, so that the president to emerge will have greater legitimacy. As such, the provisional party leader Evangelos Meimarakis has urged party supporters to participate in the process, so that it is not ‘passersby’ who determine the new leader.

In his recent visit to Thessaloniki Mr. Meimarakis lashed out against Apostolos Tzitzikostas, stressing that the new party leader – and leader of the main opposition – must be an MP. Mr. Meimarakis stressed that party supporters must view the election “politically” and underlined that the new leader must face PM Tsipras in Parliament. The provisional party leader is supported by a large part of the camp around former PM Kostas Karamanlis, who considers Mr. Meimarakis the finest candidate.

Mr. Tzitzikostas on the other hand is supported by party officers such as Makis Voridis, Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos, Charalambos Athanasiou and others. In his campaign Mr. Tzitzikostas has highlighted how he does not belong to the ‘old guard’ of the party and aims to advance the party, so the necessary changes can take place in Greece.

Meanwhile Kyriakos Mitsotakis has argued that Mr. Tzitzikostas is adopting a more right-wing nature, noting that “further to [his] right is Golden Dawn”. Mr. Mitsotakis has claimed that New Democracy will only be able to defeat SYRIZA if it moves closer to the center-right and called for party supporters to vote en masse. Mr. Mitsotakis claims to represent the more centrist, liberal and reformists elements within the conservative party.

Finally, the outsider in the party elections, Adonis Georgiadis, was also highly critical of Mr. Tzitzikostas and expressed his disappointment at the support he received from Makis Voridis. Both Georgiadis and Voridis abandoned their former party – the far-right populist LAOS headed by Giorgos Karatzaferis – together to join New Democracy and were close allies until recently. Mr. Georgiadis, who is supported by many around the former PM Antonis Samaras, is confident that he can make a surprise in the elections.