1992 Athens B by-election

Greek election September 2025 The 1992 Athens B by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 5 April 1992, for the Hellenic Parliament constituency of Athens B. Preceding events Dimitris Tsovolas, then a PASOK MP for Athens B, was sentenced to a suspended prison term of 2.5 years by the Special Court (Ministers' Council) for the Koskotas scandal and to an additional penalty of deprivation of political rights (amounting to disfranchisement and disqualification) at which point he was removed from his parliamentary seat. In protest against what they considered to be the unfair trial and conviction of Tsovolas, the PASOK runners-up, who according to the Constitution would take his place, refused to be sworn in as MPs until their number (18) was exhausted. According to the law, by-elections were thus to be called for this one seat. New Democracy, either to avoid being accused of further politicizing the trial and conviction of Tsovolas, i.e., that it sought his conviction in order to gain an additional seat in parliament (as it had a narrow majority of only 152 MPs), or to avoid a major defeat, decided not to participate in these elections. The Communist Party, Synaspismos, and Democratic Renewal also abstained from these elections. With all major parliamentary parties essentially deciding not to disrupt the status quo, and let PASOK retain the seat, it was up to smaller parties to contest the by-election. Participating alongside PASOK were the Union of Centrists, the National Political Union, Popular Unions of Non-Partisan Social Groups (with the tongue-in-cheek acronym ΛΕΥΚΟ, i.e. white/blank vote) and the Ecological Union. The obvious runner up was the Union of Centrists, with its leader, Vasilis Leventis, standing in for the election. Leventis, who had a regional television channel in Attica (Channel 67, later Channel 40), had already created a sensational climate around his candidature with his phone-in show, attracting various attitudes during political rallies ranging from mocking, to an alleged assassination attempt in Kallithea during the election.Γνωρίζατε ότι ο Λεβέντης είχε καταγγείλει απόπειρα δολοφονίας του στην Καλλιθέα; (vid) https://kallitheacity.com/%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%B8%CE%AD%CE%B1/arxeio/%CE%B1%CF%80%CF%8C%CF%80%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%81%CE%B1-%CE%B4%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%86%CE%BF%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%B1%CF%82-%CE%BB%CE%B5%CE%B2%CE%B5%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B7-%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%B8%CE%AD/ elhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBwBnBwIy4s Βασίλης Λεβέντης - Τα Γεγονότα Της Καλλιθέας 2022-10-22 YouFaoul 2025-08-26 YouTube Parties and candidates The election was contested by 20 parties and 129 candidates, 94 of whom ran as independents.6 April 1992 Αποτελέσματα https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14199/17334294 Apogevmatini 11 Greek Some of the candidates were:Photocopies of some ballot papers PASOK: Mangakis and Constantinos Papapanagiotou Union of Centrists: Leventis and George G. Papandreou (son of Georgios Papandreou, half-brother of Andreas Papandreou) EPEN: Dimopoulos Dimitrios and Spyros Zournatzis Popular Unions of Bipartisan Social Groups: Ntalios and Grigorakos Theodoros Ecological Union: Dimosthenis Vergis and Karadimos Haralambos Alternative Ecologists: Fountis Philippos Centre - Democratic Party of Greece: Lekatsas Panagiotis Party of "Humanity and Peace": Konstantopoulos Charalambis and Fotelis Nestor Democratic Party (DIKO): Anagnostou Christos and Stavropoulos Theodoros NP (New Politicians): Tzafos Christos and Sofianos Dimosthenes Toxotis (Archer): Pete Papadakos Human Rights Party: Levantis Antonios and Mpourlas Daniel Self-respect (Autosevasmos): Apostolakis Nikolaos EMA (Worker - Fighter for independents): Droulias Euthemios B - National Fighters': Delivorias Nikolaos and Tsitouras Constantinos ELEN (Hellenic Unity): Iliopoulos Angelos and Nounanakis Christos Results Sources:7 April 1992 Τελικά αποτελέσματα Final results https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14199/17150876 Niki tis Dimokratias 4 Greek7 April 1992 Λεβέντης - Βάνα και Λούκυ Λούκ https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14199/16897220 Ethnos (newspaper) 14 Greek PASOK 397721 Union of Centrists 114492 National Political Union 24985 Popular Unions of Bipartisan Social Groups 13250 Ecological Union 8401 Alternative Ecologists 6914 Human Rights Party 6181 Toxotis 2515 Independents 1677 A.S.K.E. 1613 Ecologists of Greece 1475 Self-respect 1196 Democratic Party (DIKO) 1045 Centre - Democratic Party of Greece 1040 B - National Fighters' 989 EMA 981 Party of "Humanity and Peace" 875 NP (New Politicians) 841 ELEN (Hellenic Unity) 780 Vergina 1990 286 Movement of Responsible Citizens 110 44875 42703 981703 The seat was ultimately won by PASOK's Georgios-Alexandros Mangakis, by a large margin of 283,229 votes more than Leventis. Compared to the tally of PASOK ballots in Athens B during the previous election (293,068 votes),ΑΠΟΤΕΛΕΣΜΑΤΑ_ΒΟΥΛΕΥΤΙΚΕΣ_08041990_1ΤΟΜ_ΣΥΓΚΕΝΤΡΩΤΙΚΑ.pdf this was a 35.71% increase. The result seemed equally redeeming for Leventis, who, having founded the party just a month earlier and having only garnered 3,360 votes nationally (under his previous party instance, Ecologists Pacifists Greens) in the 1990 parliamentary election, saw an increase of 3307.5% in his overall results; looking solely at Athens B, the increase was even more spectacular (Leventis having received only 553 votes in 1990): the 114,492 votes represented an uptick of 20,603.80%. This, however, can possibly be attributed to ND and other parties' voters voting for Leventis so that the seat would not go handily to PASOK.Κώστα Διγκαβέ, «Αλμανάκ 1993», Εκδόσεις Αλμανάκ, Θεσσαλονίκη 1993. Abstention reached 31,1%, as the compulsory voting provisions were not enforced for the by-election..gr Σαν Σήμερα Η αναπληρωματική εκλογή στη Β’ Αθήνας το 1992 https://www.sansimera.gr/articles/1076 https://web.archive.org/web/20250624134722/https://www.sansimera.gr/articles/1076 2025-06-24 2026-07-03 Σαν Σήμερα .gr el 13% of all ballots cast were either blank or invalid votes. The Union of Centrists was first in Filothei, Ekali, Psychiko and Papagou. It's worth noting that Leventis was lynched after casting his vote.6 April 1994 Τραμπούκοι του ΠΑΣΟΚ χτύπησαν τον Λεβέντη PASOK thugs hit Leventis https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14199/17334294 live Apogevmatini 11 Greek Aftermath Newspapers close to PASOK would feature headlines like "Waterloo for ND" (Ethnos, April 6),item https://digitallibrary.parliament.gr/newspapers/items/2da93d11-5b4a-4a11-950c-af7163088474 2026-07-02 digitallibrary.parliament.gr "Go away (said the voters)" (Ta Nea, same day), ''Mitsotakis in panic" (Ethnos, April 7),item https://digitallibrary.parliament.gr/newspapers/items/de6fc2ce-a872-42e4-aeb1-677e3359e822 2026-07-02 digitallibrary.parliament.gr while newspapers closer to ND (Apogevmatini, Kathimerini, Eleftheros Typos) interpreted the result as a protest vote against the government and castigated governmental inactivity, carrying frontpage headlines and subtitles like "Wake up, for heaven's sake, and change your mindset!" (Eleftheros Typos, 7/4),item https://digitallibrary.parliament.gr/newspapers/items/28af49b7-0a29-4884-ab80-0520dcea4e49 2026-07-02 digitallibrary.parliament.gr "Rescue mission: ND" (Kathimerini, 8/4)item https://digitallibrary.parliament.gr/newspapers/items/7be15fe7-1d77-4e4f-b411-c4f4ee0016a6 2026-07-02 digitallibrary.parliament.gr and "What's wrong and what should change" (Apogevmatini, (7/4). Papandreou called for immediate elections,item https://digitallibrary.parliament.gr/newspapers/items/2da93d11-5b4a-4a11-950c-af7163088474 2026-07-03 digitallibrary.parliament.gr and Democratic Renewal interpreted the result as the "definitive condemnation of governmental policy".7 April 1992 ΔΗ.ΑΝΑ.: Η ΝΔ καταδικάστηκε... https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14199/17150876 live Niki tis Dimokratias 7 Greek Ex-PM Georgios Rallis proposed the formation of a coalition government between ND and PASOK, as a possible solution to the political impasse..gr Σαν Σήμερα Η αναπληρωματική εκλογή στη Β’ Αθήνας το 1992 https://www.sansimera.gr/articles/1076 https://web.archive.org/web/20250624134722/https://www.sansimera.gr/articles/1076 2025-06-24 2026-07-03 Σαν Σήμερα .gr el Later developments This tenure of Mangakis ultimately proved short, as in 1993 a snap election was called following the Mitsotakis-Samaras split and the subsequent loss of parliamentary majority. In 1993, PASOK received 392,782 votes and came in first place in Athens B.ΑΠΟΤΕΛΕΣΜΑΤΑ_ΒΟΥΛΕΥΤΙΚΕΣ_10101993_1ΤΟΜ_ΣΥΓΚΕΝΤΡΩΤΙΚΑ.pdf As for Leventis and the Union of Centrists, the 1992 Athens B results were not replicated; he received a mere 4264 votes (0.5%) in Athens B and 15,926 (0.23%) on the national level. It was only in the September 2015 parliamentary election that the party was able to enter Parliament. The 1992 by-election remains the only to date by-election in the history of the Third Hellenic Republic. The previous by-election was held in 1952. References Category:Parliamentary elections in Greece