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Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-11-11
CONTENTS
[01] Papandreou handily wins PASOK leadership race
[01] Papandreou handily wins PASOK leadership race
Main opposition PASOK president George Papandreou overcame a leadership
challenge during the party's nationwide internal election on Sunday
with an apparent landslide victory, polling slightly more than 60
percent of vote to main rival Evangelos Venizelos' 33.54 percent --
with 25 percent of the total vote tallied just before midnight.
The total number of counted votes before midnight was 140,735, with
roughly 1,100 declared void or blank.
Veteran PASOK cadre and former minister Costas Skandalidis, the third
candidate in the PASOK presidential race, garnered 6.28 percent, as
pollsters estimated that the figures will not significantly change,
even as the remaining 75 percent of the vote is counted.
Earlier in the evening and after party polling stations had closed,
PASOK spokesman Yiannis Raggousis referred to a massive participation
in the party election, estimating the turnout at approximately 900,000
voters.
On his part, Venizelos called Papandreou, the former foreign minister,
before midnight to congratulate him over his re-election, something
done hours earlier by Skandalidis.
Caption: George Papandreou is greeted by supporters outside PASOK's
headquarters in downtown Athens on Sunday evening, Nov. 11, 2007.
ANA-MPA / KATERINA MAVRONA
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