Greece’s local and regional elections were held on Sunday, with runoff elections scheduled to take place next Sunday, October 15, in municipalities and regions where a second round of voting is needed.
The voter turnout for the local elections reached 52.41% with 99.12% of the votes counted.
According to voting systems operator Singular Logic’s general manager Dimitris Bakakos, among the largest municipalities, Piraeus, Heraklion (Crete), and Larissa have elected a mayor, while Athens, Thessaloniki, and Patras will need to go to a second round between the top two contenders.
Bakakos said that the 43% threshold established for mayoral wins in these local government elections means that 80-86 cities will head to the second round, while in the previous local government elections that had a 50% threshold, 219 cities needed to go to runoffs.
“The citizens reaffirmed their trust in ruling New Democracy (ND) party and its choices,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said in his first statement following the results of the local elections.
