It’s election time for the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria (GOCMV), as its members are called to vote for the new board of management on Sunday 20 January.

The elections were called by the Electoral Committee, appointed at the Community’s annual General Meeting on Sunday 16 January, and consisting of Makis Chatzilepos, Chryssoula Stamopoulou, Kostas Kyritsis, Paul Mavroudis, Anastasios Kalamovrakas, Nikos Poulakos, Christos Kalavritinos, Savvas Grigoropoulos and Cathy Alexopoulos.

The ballots will be open for all current members of the GCMV from 9.00 am to 8.00 pm, at the ‘Andrianakos Centre’ multipurpose hall of the Alphington Grammar School (Old Heidelberg Rd, Alphington).

Speaking to Neos Kosmos, the Electoral Committee President Paul Mavroudis estimated that about 500-600 members are expected to vote, around the same number who voted in the previous elections, taking into consideration that this period is vacation time for many Melburnians and some members are away. Asked whether it would make a difference in turnout, if the elections were to be held at a different time of the year, Mr Mavroudis said that he didn’t think it would make any difference. “In all events and functions you see the same people participating, mostly older people. The youth is not that interested,” he said, stressing the need for the next generations to become engaged.

Two representatives of the Greek Australian youth are among the candidates – student Georgina Pattas and former NUGAS President Tass Sgardelis. They replaced board members Nick Parthimos and Koletsis, who are not on the ballot.

The other current board members asking for a vote are Bill Papastergiadis, Nick Koukouvitakis, Theo Markos, Costas Markos,Tammy Iliou, Marinis Pirpiris, Phillip Vassiliadis, Leonidas Vlahakis, Angela Georgalis, Vasso Zangalis, Voula Kallianis, Michael Karamitos, Alexis Costa, Jim Bosinakis, Nick Dallas, Spiros Papadopoulos, Christos Sikavitsas.

Apart from these 19 members who are all part of current President, Bill Papastergiadis’ ticket, six more independent candidates are up for a seat in the 19-member board. These are Stella Papas (Papakonstantinos), Christos Fifis, Nondas Tsitas, Constantinos Tsakoumis, Michael Choundalakis and Christos Tsirkas.