The caption reads: “New Democracy, the only political party in the whole world that achieved loosing in its own internal party elections.” Image seen at “Leme tin Alitheia” (We tell The Truth) Facebook page, widely circulated online.
After a turbulent pre-election period, followed by an unexpectedly large victory [1] in September 2015 voting for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's political party SYRIZA, Greece's biggest opposition party, New Democracy [2], was supposed to hold an internal election to choose a new party president on Sunday, November 22. During the past three months, four candidates (Evaggelos Meϊmarakis, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Adonis Georgiadis, and Apostolos Tzitzikostas) have campaigned nearly everywhere imaginable, visiting cities and reaching through Greece's mainstream and social media to tell the public about their platforms and visions for the future of the party.
On Sunday morning, though, with the party's supporters already gathered at polling stations, the process for counting votes malfunctioned, leading to election's postponement.
According to reports, the company “Infosolution [3]” won a contract against three competitors to manage the voting process. That Infosolution's own website is still “under construction [3]” did not seem to worry the officials in New Democracy who chose it. The malfunction on November 22 that's made the election impossible is believed to be a glitch that Infosolution's software suffered from an error that made it impossible to synchronize voting machines with the party's electronic electoral register, which is necessary to prevent double voting.
Unexpectedly, the Greek Internet was overwhelmed, almost immediately, with tweets and social media posts criticizing the aborted election. Later on, the hashtag #eklogesnd [4] (#ElectionsNewDemcracy) became a nationally and internationally trending topic.
H ανικανότητα της @neademocratia [5] να διεξάγει εκλογές ανάδειξης αρχηγού είναι παγκόσμιο trending topic #eklogesnd [4] pic.twitter.com/GLad2JK9Lg [6]
— spyros gkelis (@northaura) November 22, 2015 [7]
New Democracy's incapability of holding its own party elections for a new president is a globally trending topic.
Η τελευταία οθόνη πριν πέσει το σύστημα. #eklogesnd [4]pic.twitter.com/piyWynlyPy [8]
— TAND (@Takis_Tand) November 22, 2015 [9]
The final screen before the system broke down.
ΑΠΟΚΛΕΙΣΤΙΚΟ. Εντοπίστηκε το τερματικό που ευθύνεται για το φιάσκο στις #eklogesnd [4] pic.twitter.com/gIm3ElS48z [10]
— P.G. Papanikolaou (@PGPapanikolaou) November 22, 2015 [11]
Exclusive! We found the server responsible for the fiasco! (the picture reads: “Exclusive! We found the server responsible for the problems in the electorial process“)
Twittergr on fire mocking @neademokratia [12] for not being able to carry out party leader elections #eklogesnd [4] is a TT pic.twitter.com/Zjj300ofSO [13]
— spyros gkelis (@northaura) November 22, 2015 [14]
New Democracy's election fiasco begs the qstn: if they cannot organize a vote who will trust them 2 run the country? https://t.co/YPmchqthCW [15]
— Daphne Papadopoulou (@daphnenews) November 22, 2015 [16]
blue screen of death #eklogesnd [4]pic.twitter.com/qEkz3GYw5p [17]
— shoegazer (@Owned8) November 22, 2015 [18]
Just woke up, found out about the #eklogesnd [4] fiasco. Can't. Stop. Laughing. What a sorry state for the opposition. And the country.
— The Greek Analyst (@GreekAnalyst) November 22, 2015 [19]
#eklogesnd [4] Elections for the new @neademocratia [5] leader postponed this morning after software glitz! This party aims to govern again #Greece [20].
— Stratos Safioleas (@stratosathens) November 22, 2015 [21]
The Greek government itself couldn't resist the opportunity to mock its opponents on Twitter:
ΣΥΡΙΖΑ: Ευχόμαστε σύντομα η χώρα να αποκτήσει σοβαρή και υπεύθυνη αντιπολίτευση #eklogesnd [4] https://t.co/ZLZnzFQ8YE [22]
— ΣΥΡΙΖΑ (@syriza_gr) November 22, 2015 [23]
SYRIZA: We hope that the country will soon have a serious and responsible opposition party.
CNN Greece reported that [24]angry New-Democracy supporters are looking for Mr. Andreas Papamimikos (the President of the country's Central Election Committee and the party's Secretary), believing him to be responsible for the fiasco.
In the aftermath of the botched election, the party's next steps remain unclear. Whatever New Democracy and its four candidates decide to do, they can likely expect a rough period ahead, until they live down the embarrassment of this weekend.