Androulakis tops first round in Movement for Change leadership contest

European Parliament lawmaker Nikos Androulakis, 42, will face former PM George Papandreou, 69, in a runoff Sunday for the leadership of the center-left Movement for Change (KINAL) party. 

Androulakis won the first round comfortably on Sunday, garnering more than 37.06%, ahead of Papandreou on 27.78% and MP Andreas Loverdos, 65, with 25.95%.

Androulakis achieved victories in 11 of the 13 region, losing only Western Greece to Papandreou and Attica to Loverdos. Androulakis achieved his most sweeping victory in his homeland Crete, where he received 61.38% against 24.69% for Papandreou and only 10.07% for Loverdos.

Crete was once a bastion of the Papandreous and of SYRIZA in the last general election and the result hints at a possible shift in the political landscape.

Turnout of party members and friends reached nearly 268,000, more than the 217,000 that voted in the last leadership contest, in 2017.