Socialist PASOK party president Fofi Gennimata was leading by a wide margin on Sunday evening in the first round of a leadership race for a new center-left grouping in the country. According to initial figures released by an election board overseeing the poll, Gennimata is on the verge of winning an outright majority in the first round.
The election of a president for the nascent political party came via a popular vote, with more 210,000 people participating in the one-day process after paying a nominal membership fee and showing some sort of ID.
With 15 percent of the vote tallied so far, Gennimata is above the 50-percent threshold, at 50.48 percent, with Eurodeputy Nikos Androulakis polling 25.43 percent. Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis is third with 11.54 percent, followed by centrist Potami (River) party leader Stavros Theodorakis with 5.5 percent.
