Papandreou's Socialist Party Seen Leading in Key Local Elections in Greece
Nov 7, 2010 9:48 PM GMT+0100
Greek Prime Minister
George Papandreou’s socialist party was leading in a key local vote today that Papandreou has called a test of support for his government as it grapples with a crippling budget deficit and debt burden.
Candidates backed by the socialist Pasok party will win eight of 13 regional authorities, with the New Democracy party ahead in the other five in the first round of elections, according to Yannis Karakadas, the chief of Singularlogic SA, which is running the vote count. Three of the regions may change, he said. A run-off election between candidates who don’t win a majority will be held Nov. 14.
Papandreou threatened earlier that he may call an early national election unless voters endorse him in today’s balloting. Polls showed most Greeks were planning a vote of protest after his 13-month-old government cut wages and pensions and raised taxes to secure a 110 billion-euro ($154.3 billion) rescue package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund in May.
Papandreou will address the Greek people with “absolute responsibility and sincerity” as soon as there is a “clear and reliable” result from the count, government spokesman
George Petalotis said as voting ended.
Almost 10 million people were entitled to cast ballots to elect officials for 325 Greek municipalities and 13 regions. About 60 percent of the electorate abstained from voting, according to official results so far. Socialists were ahead in three of the country’s five biggest municipalities as well, according to projections.
Voting Appetite
Eight in 10 Greeks don’t want early elections, according to a poll of 1,027 voters conducted by Public Issue from Nov. 4 to Nov. 6 for Skai television and released today.
The poll showed the same number of voters rejected Papandreou’s appeal for support and that 65 percent considered there were alternatives to the rescue package, compared with 59 percent in May when it was drafted. No exit polls have been conducted for today’s elections.
“All of them are mocking us, telling lies,” Spyros Varkatzoulis, 27, a construction worker in Athens, said on Nov. 6. “There’s no reason to vote for any of them.”
The prospect of political upheaval has unnerved investors again, just after Greece’s cost of borrowing had started to decline. Yields on 10-year Greek bonds climbed above 11 percent last week from a low of 8.77 percent on Oct. 13.
Spread Widens
The
spread against yields on German bunds of the same maturity has widened 211 basis points since Papandreou raised the possibility of early elections last month. It had narrowed to 649 basis points on Oct. 18 from a record 965 on May 7, five days after the EU and IMF approved the bailout.
Most polls showed before today’s countdown that Greeks will vote against Pasok-backed candidates and the government’s wage and pension cuts, designed to narrow a budget deficit equal to almost 13.6 percent of gross domestic product. The size of the shortfall was revealed after Papandreou won elections in October 2009 on a promise of higher wages and increased state spending.
Papandreou and his socialist party lead the main opposition New Democracy party. Forty-one percent had a higher level of trust for Papandreou, compared with 23 percent for New Democracy leader
Antonis Samaras, according to the Kapa poll.
Yiannis Dimaras, one of three lawmakers expelled from Pasok after defying Papandreou in the May vote on terms of the bailout, conceded defeat today as he came in third in the race to head a new regional authority for the greater Athens area, the biggest in Greece.
Dimaras, 66, has campaigned under the slogan: “Memorandum for the people,” a reference to the May agreement with the EU and IMF. He said he will resign from parliament on Jan. 1, allowing Papandreou to name a socialist party member in his place and boosting his majority in parliament to 158 in the 300- seat chamber.
