Western Thrace Turks field 4 lawmakers in Greece election
People walk next to a kiosk in Athens, Greece, May 22, 2023. (Reuters Photo)


Unofficial results of the elections in Greece showed that Western Thrace Turks won four lawmakers for the Greek Parliament on Sunday.

According to data from the Greek Interior Ministry, Özgür Ferhat was chosen from Syriza in Rhodope and Ilhan Ahmet from Pasok, while Hüseyin Zeybek was chosen from Syriza in Xanthi (Iskeçe) as well as Burhan Baran from Pasok similarly in Xanthi.

Ferhat was chosen for the Greek Parliament for the first time while Zeybek, Baran and Ahmet had entered before.

Ferhat vowed to work for the interest of the local population and said: "We ranked first with the support of our minority in this election."

The conservative New Democracy party of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Sunday scored its best result since 2007 at 40.79%, beating the leftist Syriza party of former premier Alexis Tsipras by over 20 points – the widest margin between the two leading parties in a Greek election since 1974.

But under a proportional representation electoral system introduced by Tsipras, New Democracy won 146 seats, five short of a majority in the 300-deputy Parliament.

Mitsotakis himself on Sunday indicated he would decline a mandate to form a coalition government and said parties should "speed up" procedures for a new ballot, expected for June 25 or July 2.

The new election will be governed by different rules granting the winner a seat bonus in Parliament.