Papandreou alleges fraud in KINAL leadership vote
George Papandreou, the former prime minister and PASOK leader who is contesting Sunday’s runoff in the race for the center-left Movement for Change (KINAL) leadership, has called for an investigation into alleged fraud in the first round of voting.
In a letter to KINAL’s ethics committee on Thursday, Papandreou said there needed to be an “in-depth investigation” into complaints received by the committee of voting irregularities.
He said that after a review by his team of the official election results, “it transpired that in 164 polling stations (out of a total of 841, i.e. in 20% of the polling stations) more ballot papers were found than accredited voters.”
As a result, there were “at least 2,700 more ballot papers” than there should have been, he said.
He called on the committee to investigate the claims to ensure the transparency and integrity of Sunday’s runoff.
European Parliament lawmaker Nikos Androulakis, 42, will face Papandreou, 69, in the runoff.
Androulakis won the first round comfortably last Sunday, garnering more than 37.06%, ahead of Papandreou on 27.78%.
