Greece's main opposition party elects temporary leader after election defeat

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Greece’s main opposition SYRIZA party on Sunday elected a temporary leader after Alexis Tsipras stepped down on Thursday following the party’s defeat in last month’s elections, local media reported.

The political secretariat of the left-wing party elected Sokratis Famellos, a senior member of the party and former energy minister, as the temporary leader who will act as the president of the parliamentary group, according to the ERT public broadcaster.

It said that the party’s congress will convene in September to elect the new leader.

Furthermore, an extraordinary congress will convene in November to discuss and decide on the restoration process the party will go through, and future policies the party will embrace, according to the broadcaster.

In the national election held last Sunday that created the most right-wing parliament in the country since 1974, conservative New Democracy gained 40.55% of the votes and consequently secured 158 of the 300 seats in the parliament.

Though SYRIZA preserved its position as the main opposition party by coming second with 17.84% of the votes and 48 parliamentary seats, the results indicated a major defeat for the party, as confirmed by its leaders as well.

The social democratic PASOK party came in third with 11.85% of the votes, which enabled it to secure 32 seats in the parliament.

The country’s 150,000-strong Turkish minority will be represented by four lawmakers, with two of them elected from SYRIZA, while two others from the PASOK lists.

The turnout rate in Sunday's elections was only 52.82%, down from 61.1% in the May election.