Only two per cent of women who ran for a Greek mayoral office managed either to be elected from the first round or to qualify for the second round of the elections. This surprising development was gleaned from figures released by Greece’s interior ministry following Sunday’s election.
From a total of 128 women who vied for positions on one of the 335 Greek local councils, only eight managed to get elected last Sunday by gaining more than 50 per cent of the vote; nineteen additional women earned enough votes to qualify for the second round on June 2.
The small Greek island of Folegandros was the bright exception in this Greek election which was so dominated by men:
Two women, Efthalia Papadopoulou and Maria Tilia Bali, ran for office on this beautiful island in the Aegean.
Papadopoulou managed to secure 69.4 percent of the vote and became Folegandros’ new mayor.
Greek parties always try to include more women on their lists of candidates, but it is always the choice of the voters which shapes the political map of the country in the end.
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