ATHENS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Greece's conservatives of New Democracy (ND) party won Sunday's European parliament elections, as well as the first round of local elections, according to the final official results released by the Interior Ministry on Thursday.
The main opposition ND party secured 33.11 percent of votes in the European polls (and 8 seats out of a total of 21 allocated to Greece) against 23.76 percent of votes (6 seats) for the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA party, according to the results posted on the ministry's website.
The margin is a record high recorded in European elections in Greece since 2004 when ND had won the socialists of PASOK with a 9 percent gap.
Faced with such an outcome, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced on Sunday midnight his intention to call snap general elections after the second round for the local electoral battle on June 2. They will most likely be held on July 7, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos clarified.
In Sunday's elections for the European parliament, the centrist Movement for Change (Kinima Allagis in Greek- KINAL) followed third with 7.72 percent of votes, and the Greek Communist Party (KKE) fourth with 5.35 percent, according to the final official results.
A total of six Greek parties will send representatives to the European parliament, clearing the three percent threshold needed under Greece's electoral law.
The ultra-Right Chryssi Avghi (Golden Dawn) is the fifth one after receiving 4.88 percent of votes and a new right-wing party, the Greek Solution (Elliniki Lysi), the last winning 4.18 percent of votes.
According to the Interior Ministry's data, the 58.76 percent of the 9.8 million registered voters in Greece cast ballots in Sunday's elections.
Regarding the parallel electoral battle in local elections, according to the final official results, candidates backed by the conservatives were leading in 12 out of 13 regions and many of the 325 municipalities contested across Greece.
In the two key races in the local elections for the posts of the Regional Governor of Attica and the Mayor of the Municipality of Athens, ND candidates Giorgos Patoulis and Kostas Bakoyannis respectively hold large leads over the candidates affiliated with SYRIZA, the incumbent Rena Dourou and Nassos Iliopoulos.
Patoulis won 37.63 percent of votes on Sunday against 19.71 percent for Dourou and Bakoyannis 42.65 percent against 16.98 percent for Iliopoulos.
In the mayoral race in the port of Piraeus, the incumbent Yannis Moralis is ahead with 45.34 percent of votes and in the city port of Thessaloniki in northern Greece the conservative candidate Nikolaos Tachiaos with 22.4 percent of votes.
