| Election Name: | New Democracy leadership election, 2015–16 |
| Country: | Greece |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2009 New Democracy leadership election |
| Previous Year: | 2009 |
| Election Date: | 20 December 2015– 10 January 2016 |
| Candidate1: | Kyriakos Mitsotakis |
| Party1: | New Democracy (Greece) |
| Popular Vote1: | 115,162 (1st round) 173,297 (2nd round) |
| Percentage1: | 28.5% (1st round) 52.4% (2nd round) |
| Candidate2: | Vangelis Meimarakis |
| Party2: | New Democracy (Greece) |
| Popular Vote2: | 160,823 (1st round) 157,224 (2nd round) |
| Percentage2: | 39.8% (1st round) 47.6% (2nd round) |
| Candidate4: | Apostolos Tzitzikostas |
| Party4: | New Democracy (Greece) |
| Popular Vote4: | 82,028 (1st round) |
| Percentage4: | 20,3% (1st round) |
| Candidate5: | Adonis Georgiadis |
| Party5: | New Democracy (Greece) |
| Popular Vote5: | 46,065 (1st round) |
| Percentage5: | 11.4% (1st round) |
| President of ND | |
| Before Election: | Ioannis Plakiotakis (acting) |
| After Election: | Kyriakos Mitsotakis |
The 2015–16 New Democracy leadership election refers to the two-round election to determine the next president of New Democracy, after the resignation of Antonis Samaras on 5 July 2015. The first round was held on 20 December 2015 and the second round was held on 10 January 2016. Kyriakos Mitsotakis was elected as the new president.[1]
Whilst the election had originally been expected to be held on 30 August 2015,[2] 57 MPs called for interim leader Vangelis Meimarakis to stay on until spring 2016, postponing the leadership election.[3] [4] However, following ND's election loss in the early September 2015 elections, leadership elections were planned to be held before year's end.[5]
The central electoral committee of the party met on 24 September at the request of interim leader Vangelis Meimarakis, to begin the electoral process. They set out a timetable as follows:[6]
On 21 November, when testing the electronic voting system, the Central Electoral Committee found a number of issues, which meant that the election could not start at the scheduled time of 07:00 on 22 November. Furthermore, another issue arose on the evening of the 22 that caused the Central Electoral Committee to replace 50 electoral delegates. They then took a unanimous decision to postpone the election.[7]
Mitsotakis issued a statement saying: "We owe a big apology to all the New Democracy supporters, and also to all Greek citizens. Unfortunately the election process can no longer take place today. This is no time to be seeking who is responsible. The time for that will come later." Meimarakis threatened to withdraw his candidacy if the election was not postponed, and Georgiadis called the failure a "fiasco" and asked for the resignation of all the members of the Central Electoral Committee.[8]
Both Mitsotakis and Tzitzikostas called for Meimarakis to step down as interim leader and appoint a new interim leader. On 24 November, Meimarakis appointed Ioannis Plakiotakis, the secretary of the parliamentary group, as a Vice President of New Democracy.[9] Later that day, Meimarakis resigned as the interim President, appointing Plakiotakis as the new interim President.[10]
| Candidate | Image | Constituency | Office | Source | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athens B | Minister of Health (2013–2014) | [11] | ||||
| Athens B | Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament (2012-2015) | |||||
| Athens B | Minister of Administrative Reform and e-Governance (2013–2015) | |||||
| None | Regional Governor of Central Macedonia (2013–present) |
The results of the election.[13] [14] In the first round only the valid votes were announced.
| width=250 rowspan=2 | Candidate | width=150 colspan=2 | First election 20 December 2015 | width=150 colspan=2 | Second election 10 January 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=75 | Votes | width=75 | % | width=75 | Votes | width=75 | % |
| Kyriakos Mitsotakis | 115,162 | 28.50 | 173,297 | 52.43 | |||
| Vangelis Meimarakis | 160,823 | 39.80 | 157,224 | 47.57 | |||
| Apostolos Tzitzikostas | 82,028 | 20.30 | bgcolor=#E9E9E9 colspan=2 | ||||
| Adonis Georgiadis | 46,065 | 11.40 | bgcolor=#E9E9E9 colspan=2 | ||||
| Total | 404,078 | 100.00 | 330,521 | 100.00 | |||
| Valid votes | 404,078 | — | 330,521 | 98.74 | |||
| Invalid ballots | — | — | 3,077 | 0.92 | |||
| Blank ballots | — | — | 1,154 | 0.34 | |||
| Votes cast / turnout | — | — | 334,752 | 100.00 | |||