13 parties across the three municipalities taking part in upcoming elections and 6 in the regional elections
CORFU. Parties were adding names up to the last minute in efforts to attract voters.
Corfu mayoral candidates and Ionian Islands Regional party leaders engaged in a last-minute race yesterday in order to finalise their election lists.
The deadline for submitting the party candidates and council members on the Ministry of Interior's online platform was set at 11:59 PM on Thursday.
From the morning of the same day, most of the campaign teams reviewed the lists they had compiled, examining the final details before clicking the "submit" button for the definitive submission of their parties and the verification of their candidacies on the online portal for Municipal and Regional Elections.
In fact, announcements of new candidates for council members were not lacking yesterday either, with several parties closing gaps or strengthening their candidate lists just before the deadline, in an effort to make them more attractive to the potential electorate that will be heading to the polls very soon.
Some didn't manage
In many cases, the new electoral law with the quota requirements it imposes has been a headache for the candidates in the formation of their election lists.
This was evident in the Central Municipality, where the Ekkinisi party ultimately fell out of the race as they couldn't reach the threshold of 104 candidates and ended up with 80. Grigoriadis, the leader of the party, told Enimerosi that no decision of support has been made for any other party, and it is expected that the Coordination Committee will convene in September and the party's assembly will take place.
The change in the electoral law also negatively affected the independent citizens' movement Kerkyra 180, which ultimately failed to gather the required number of candidates to run independently in the upcoming local elections.
Giorgos Kaloudis, the leader of the two cooperating parties (Prota I Kerkyra and Kerkyraiki Anagennisi led by Chrysanthos Sarlis), also ended up out of the local elections. The procedures continued until the last moment yesterday, the deadline for candidate submissions, but the composition required by the current law for local elections was not achieved.
Central Corfu Municipality candidates
There are officially five Mayoral candidates along with their parties:
Kekyraion Dimos (Meropi Ydraiou) - 359 candidates
Exarhis (Stefanos Poulimenos) - 352 candidates
Allazoume Rota (Takis Metallinos) - 140 candidates
Laiki Sispirosi (Yiannis Borbotis) - 210 candidates
Kerkyraiki Simmahia (Giorgos Karydis) - 130 candidates
South Corfu Municipality candidates
There are officially five Mayoral candidates along with their parties:
Enotiki Kinisi (Kostas Lessis) - 191 candidates
DIMOSYN (Nikos Gousis) - 105 candidates
Laiki Sispirosi (Stamatis Pelais) - 168 candidates
Enomeni gia to Noto (Vassilis Himariotis) - 130 candidates
Nea Arhi (Alexandros Alexakis)
North Corfu Municipality candidates
There are officially three Mayoral candidates along with their parties:
Allazi i Voria Kerkyra (Giorgos Mahimaris) - 216 candidates
LASY (Kostas Roussinos) - 136 candidates
Symparataxi Anexartiton Politon (Spyros Varelis) - 178 candidates
Ionian Islands Regional Administration candidates
There are officially six candidates along with their parties:
Ionio Dinata (Rodi Kratsa) - 89 candidates
Ionia Epochi (Yiannis Trepeklis) - 87 candidates
LASY Ionian Islands (Alexandra Balou) - 87 candidates
ANASA (Theodoros Galiatsatos) - 85 candidates
Menoume Ionio (Maria Dri) - 62 candidates
Aristeri Synergasia gia ta Ionia (Giorgos Raidestinos)
The announcement of the party candidates will be made by the local Courts of First Instance on Sunday, September 10th. According to a circular from the Ministry of Interior, the official pre-election period begins one month before the elections. The new lmunicipal and regional authorities will be installed on January 1st, 2024, and their five-year term will end on December 31st, 2028.
MARIA BAZDRIYIANNI
