The 2023 Cretan regional election took place on 8 October 2023, simultaneously with the rest of Greece. The election was for all 45 elected seats of the Regional Council of Crete as well as the Regional Governor.
This was the fourth Cretan regional election and the incumbent Governor (Stavros Arnaoutakis, PASOK) ran for a fourth consecutive term.
The ballot resulted in the election of Stavros Arnaoutakis, the incumbent Governor, as Regional Governor with 78% of the votes. The left-wing candidate, former SYRIZA MP Spyros Danellis, came in second with 11 percent. The KKE candidate, Alekos Marinakis, received 8 percent of the vote. The anticapitalist list failed to obtain 3% of the votes, thus losing its representation in the Council.
Electoral system According to the new electoral system introduced by the New Democracy government in 2021, the majority percentage is defined as greater than 43% plus one vote of all valid ballots, instead of 50% plus one vote. In particular, the election of the regional governor is ensured from the first round, with an election threshold of 43%. If the first list receives up to 60%, it elects 3/5 of the regional council seats, while for more than 60%, the seats of each list are distributed proportionally.
Results
Aftermath As the "For Our Crete" list did obtain more than 43% of the votes in the first round, the second round did not take place. The new Regional Council members were sworn in on December 21, 2023. The ceremony took place in St. Marc's Basilica in Heraklion. Shortly after, Stavros Arnaoutakis announced the members of his fourth regional cabinet. It consisted of 11 thematic Vice Regional Governors: Order OfficePortraitNameListTook officeLeft officeRegional Unit1Regional GovernorStavros ArnaoutakisFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentHeraklion2Vice Regional Governor for Climate Change and Sustainable MobilityIoannis AnastasakisFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentHeraklion3Vice Regional Governor for EntrepreneurshipMichael VavmvoukasFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentRethymno4Vice Regional Governor for Social Policy and SolidarityStylianos VoryiasFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentHeraklion5Vice Regional Governor for TourismKyriakos KotsoglouFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentChania6Vice Regional Governor for Interconnection with Research and Academic Foundations Georgios MatalliotakisFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentHeraklion7Vice Regional Governor for Culture and EqualityGeorgia MilakiFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentHeraklion8Vice Regional Governor for EnvironmentNikolaos XylourisFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentHeraklion9Vice Regional Governor for Coordination and Support of the Technical Projects DirectorateNikolaos SkoulasFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentHeraklion10Vice Regional Governor for SportsLeonidas TerzisFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentLasithi11Vice Regional Governor for AgricultureStavros TzedakisFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentHeraklion12Vice Regional Governor for Civil ProtectionGeorgios TsapakosFor our Crete 1 January 2024 IncumbentChania
References