Μovement for Change approves six candidacies in party leadership race, candidates feverishly regroup

By George Gilson

The centre-left Movement for Change Party (KINAL, formerly Pasok) today approved and certified six candidates for the party leadership race after examining the signatures submitted in support of each candidate.

The six candidates approved are, in alphabetical order: MEP Nikos Androulakis, Athens City Councillor Pavlos Geroulanos, Thessaloniki MP Haris Kastanidis, Athens Second District MP and KINAL parliamentary representative Andreas Loverdos, former PM George Papandreou, and party spokesman Pavlos Christidis.

Each of the candidates submitted the requisite number of signatures of party or Central Committee members yesterday and their candidacies were approved today by the party's Committee on Ethics in the Enforcement of the Charter and Certification.

All six satisfied the conditions of gathering either 15 percent of the members of the party's Central Committee or 5,000 members' signatures.

There will be candidates' debates - as yet unscheduled - ahead of the 5 December first round of voting.

KINAL leader Fofi Gennimata, who pulled out of the race for health reasons, has decided not to publicly support any candidate but declared she will continue to work for the unity of the party.

Papandreou's candidacy threw the electoral process into a tailspin, with one candidate (MP Vasilis Kegeroglou) withdrawing from the race and the other candidates feverishly revising their strategies and regrouping.

MP Andreas Loverdos, who has said that if elected he will rename the party Pasok, had the most combative and audacious reaction to Papandreou's candidacy, and effectively depicted himself as the only candidate that, following in Andreas Papandreou's footsteps, can make the party great again.

He went as...