Plans for ND conference ahead of leadership vote fall through

Tentative plans for a New Democracy party conference ahead of a leadership contest, whose first round is due on November 22, fell through on Wednesday after the four candidates in the race failed to agree on a date for the event.

In a statement on Wednesday, interim party leader Evangelos Meimarakis’s representative on the party’s central electoral committee said “the necessary agreement on the timing of a party conference has not been reached by the candidates.”

Meimarakis originally proposed a party conference on November 18, and was backed by Central Macedonia Regional Governor Apostolos Tzitzikostas, but the date did not fit in with the campaign schedules of the other two candidates, former ministers Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Adonis Georgiadis.

Efforts to agree on an alternative date failed.

In mid-October, the four candidates reached a truce after a bout of infighting raised doubts about whether the vote would even take place.