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With the convincing victory of Andonis Samaras and calls for party unity from all sides ended the battle for leadership of New Democracy. Despite the procedural woes, the technical collapse and the long lines in front of the election centers, the right voters chose their candidate without the need for a second election round. “I take the honor and responsibility to lead the party through new fights,” said Andonis Samaras and stressed: “I have already forgotten everything, which was said about me before the elections.” He thanked his opponents by addressing them by their first names and also Kostas Karamanlis, because all of them congratulated him right away over the phone.

Except the result form the vote big news of the day was the huge voters participation. Based on preliminary data over one million people have voted for a New Democracy leader – participation, which exceeded even the greatest expectations. There were lines in front of the election centers until late at night. The Election Day did not end without trouble because the online voting system shut down and for few hours all voters were signed in by hand. Because of this the election period was prolonged until 10:00PM, instead of 07:00PM, as it was announced earlier.

Based on the final results Andonis Samaras won with 50.18%, Dora Bakoyanni 39.78% and Panagiotis Psomiadis 10.6%. The 58 year old Andonis Samaras was born in Athens and has graduated from Harvard University with e degree in Economics. He has been a deputy and a Minister of Economy, Culture and Foreign Affairs during the different governments of New Democracy. In 1992 he left the party due to disagreement with the leader back then Konstantinos Mitsotakis regarding his policies with the name Macedonia. After leaving New Democracy, he founded his own party Political Spring, which he closes in 2004 without success and returned in New Democracy.