Greece's main opposition party to elect new leader

Greece's main opposition New Democracy (ND) party is to elect a new leader on Sunday, with some 400,000 voters expected to cast ballots nationwide.

Two party heavyweights, Vangelis Meimarakis and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, emerged as the top contenders from the first ballot, which was held in December.

Meimarakis, a 62-year-old former speaker of parliament, acted as the ND's interim chief from July to November after former prime minister and party leader Antonis Samaras stepped down. He won 39.8 percent of the vote in the first round.

Mitsotakis, 47 and son of former ND leader and prime minister Constantine Mitsotakis, received 28.5 percent of the vote last month.

The polls are scheduled to close at 7 p.m. local time (1700 GMT), and estimates on the results are expected around midnight.

Analysts noted that two factors would determine the outcome, of which the first is the voter turnout. In the previous round, more than 400,000 party members cast votes.

The second factor is whom the supporters of the other two candidates would opt for. About 130,000 votes went to Central Macedonia Governor Apostolos Tzitzikostas and former Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis.

Georgiadis has voiced his support for Mitsotakis, and Tzitzikostas has expressed a similar inclination.

Media commentators in Athens saw Meimarakis as more conciliatory and perhaps more willing to work for national consensus under a new coalition government with the ruling left-wing Syriza party, which is led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Mitsotakis, presenting himself as anti-Tsipras, has underlined his opposition to the government's controversial bills such as the upcoming pension reform, and ruled out any prospect of an alliance with the radical left. Endi