Greek election maps

[Sir John Johns]

I’m currently making maps of Greek elections since 2000 at municipal level (from 2010 and Kallikratis reform, at “municipal unit” level). Here the first two:





Not 100% accurate due to the existence of “special stations” (I’m not sure how it works), I choose to ignore (the vast majority of them had anyway only a few hundreds of voters). Note also that I can’t find to which municipalities were a handful of “communities” in northern Epirus part of in 2000 (all but one had became municipalities by 2004).

[Sir John Johns]

I corrected a minor error in the 2004 map: a municipality in Epirus was actually a draw between the PASOK and the ND.

Here is 2007:



Some interesting trends I can't explain due to my limited knowledge of the Greek political scene like the ND breakthrough in Western Crete or the massive swing from the ND to the PASOK in Eastern Thrace compared to 2004 when, for some reason, the ND won there big in this traditional PASOK stronghold.

The island with the two red municipalities is Ikaria, isn't it? Which were the strongest places for the KKE, in the mainland and the archipelago?

Yes, the island with two red municipalities is Ikaria. Otherwise, the KKE was stronger in 2007 in Lesbos, Samos, Thasos, the Ionian Islands (especially in Corfu) and, to a lesser extent in Lemnos. On the mainland, the party got its best results in the popular suburbs of Athens and Thessaloniki, in Thessaly, and in the former prefecture of Ioannina. Conversely, the KKE was weak in Crete, in Western Thrace, and, to a lesser degree, in Peloponnese.

Why is (was) the island Crete do leftist?

I have only a superficial knowledge of Greek politics so I can’t give you a clear and comprehensive answer. One of the explanations seems to be that the PASOK successfully captured the traditional venizelist (liberal, centrist and republican) vote, which is traditionally strong in the island (Venizelos was born in Crete). In addition, the PASOK has faced in Crete little competition from the left, especially from the KKE, which has been historically weak in the island (notably, there was no important communist guerrilla activity in Crete during the Greek Civil War).  Things have changed however and nowadays, SYRIZA has displaced the PASOK as the largest party in Crete.

[Sir John Johns]

Thank you very much. I like the KKE map of 2007. I've noticed that Mt Athos in the Chalkidiki peninsula appears in grey in your general election maps. I guess that the monks living in the Monastic State of the Holy Mountain don't take part in Greek elections. However, Mt Athos is coloured in the KKE map. The very idea of the existence of monks with communist leanings is amusing (one could think those pious men prefer ND or LAOS), but maybe it's an error and nobody voted for the KKE or another party in the monasteries (?). Great work anyway.

My bad, it was obviously a mistake; monks of Mount Athos indeed don't vote in Mount Athos itself. I don't know however if they can vote in neighboring municipal units.

Anyway, here is 2009:

[Sir John Johns]

From 2012, the ministry of Interior website indicates the existence of a municipal unit named “Aposp. Makry Gialou” in the municipality of Siteia (Lasithi regional unit, Crete). I can’t found information about this municipal unit (including its boundaries) nor even for the complete name of such a municipal unit which seems to be only mentioned by the ministry of Interior’s election website. The weird thing is that there is also a municipal unit called Makry Gialos in the neighboring municipality of Ierapetra so maybe it’s just a postal vote station or something like that. In any case, I choose to ignore the municipal unit of “Aposp. Makry Gialou”; if I found more information about it I will complete my maps.

So here is an unshaded version of May 2012 legislative election:



And here the shaded version:



Second place map:

[Sir John Johns]

June 2012 Legislative Election: