If elections this is the time of politicians, it is certainly also the celebration of lawyers, many of whom travel around Greece to count ballots and crosses before even being licensed to practice their profession. Primary motivation? Money, of course, because selective compensation for court representatives is a significant amount, which starts from 600 euros and can go up to 1,000 euros, depending on the distance they have to travel. The biggest problem, especially if elections are held in the winter, is Gavdos. The Coast Guard is often called upon to transport a legal representative to the constituency of the island, since without him the procedure cannot take place.

However, elections are also an opportunity for paid and, above all, justified and free from other obligations: a group of women lawyers in each electoral competition each time announces on the platform a different island of Greece, combining elections and abstaining from everyday life. Many lawyers continue the family tradition, as the children accompanied their parents, who worked as lawyers, to the elections. Others are constantly participating only … in elections: “I am speechless, I admit it. I like the excitement of these days,” admits Ms. Evita Divari. And those who are older remember the times when elections meant tension, struggle and setbacks.

Associates Eleni Trova, Efi Andreoulakou, Trasivulos Papastratis, Ioanna Kapika and Evita Divari they speak “K” about the adventures of the urn…

Eleni Trova
60 years

Chaos with armed men

“From childhood, I went to the polls with my father, who was a lawyer. I started out as a legal representative when I was still a trainee. Minor quarrels with party representatives and the like, nothing serious,” he says. And the food and snacks are especially in the villages. But one election contest will be remembered forever: on the night of October 11-12, 1998, the first municipal elections were held with a new self-governing district called Kallikratis.

“I was assigned to Crete, and the Cretans did not want the abolition of many communities, as determined by Kallikratis. So, I come to the village where my polling station was, and I see it empty. Many windows of houses were shattered by gunshots. The school is a polling place, locked down. The president’s brother comes and tells me, “My brother will not open a branch for you. You will not hold elections unless they are held with Kapodistrias (including the former administrative division system which has been abolished).” In the meantime, I began to see shadows all around and soon realized that they had weapons. They came to guard the site so that… no one would run away and come to vote. I thought about calling the police, but I was afraid of what might happen.

So I decided to arrange for the polling station to officially open, but no one voted. So they opened it for me, I put the package and at exactly 7 the process formally ended: zero voters. All night long they played rakes in different parts of the village, and so we went from house to house. I was careful not to miss anyone or be misunderstood. In the morning I went to deliver the bag to the court of first instance. The other day I learned from the newspapers that elections were not held in many villages, but there were riots because many representatives of the judiciary tried to open polling stations with the help of the army.”

Thrasyvulos Papastratis
68 years old

They wanted to vote for the king

He remembers the first electoral contests, which he went to as a court representative in the first years of the post-revolutionary period. “Nothing to do with today. Two days before the election, the army went to the polling stations. He will put guards to guard this place and take the key.” Each party had its own electoral agent in each constituency, and some deputies sent their man, “For posters and stickers, some people put like four stickers on everything.” At the time, results were slow to get through because ballot bags couldn’t get from one island to the next, but the atmosphere was overwhelming, especially in the villages.

They waited with great anticipation for the legal representative, I think many times they had months to see a stranger. They roasted lamb, laid tables. My grandparents came and told me: “I want a king.” He has no king, throw something else, I suggested. No, they insisted on the king.”

He himself traveled all over Greece and mostly preferred remote villages. “For what other reason would I go to the border?” In the European elections 20 years ago, he asked to go to Turkic-speaking villages, to Maroneya, to the Rhodopes. “Everyone wore headscarves and no one spoke Greek. Someone from the village came and became a translator. But I was impressed that their IDs were wrapped in a white collared scarf. They unwrapped it and took out their ID as if they were doing the most important thing in their lives. They lined up in an unimaginable order, one after the other.”

It goes without saying that in the villages the polling stations close for lunch for food and drink.

“In a village in Laconia, everyone at the polling station was drinking soft drinks in the morning. This impressed me, but I eventually realized that the inside of the bottles was wine or tsipouro, whichever. At four o’clock in the afternoon the flow of voters stops. Let’s close, offer, no one else will come. It’s impossible, I told them, we still have three hours. They insisted: no more will come. Should we tell you the result from now on? What they told me came out of the ballot box. To be precise, two votes fell out. A couple came from Athens who weren’t expecting them.”

Efi Andreulaku
43 years

Submitted Bulletin

He has been holding elections for many years, but this time he does not know if he will go. “It’s hard with two kids and a baby,” she says. Her law school friends, who now have families and children, still agree to declare the same place as legal representatives, to combine work and play, to arrange a mini-vacation. “You have to go from Friday to pick up these things, you know,” he tells me pointedly. “Of course, there is enough money for a working day in principle. Many people like the process itself, the involvement of the public, they feel that they have power, ”he explains the love of lawyers for elections. According to him, there was a lot more work before. “We had to write all five times, now at least the documents are pre-printed.” But some things never change.

“A grandmother comes to the polling station, in the village of Fokida. He comes on the screen and after a while calls me. “Come on girl, help me. I want to vote for X, but I can’t find the ballot, I put it somewhere and lost it.” I gave it to her, she voted and dropped out. Her son, who has been waiting for her, sees in the sock the ballot he gave her (because he put it there) and starts yelling at her. He didn’t believe her at all that she voted for what he told her.”

Evita Divaris
39 years

Breastfeeding at the ballot box

Where are we going for three days? It’s a constant refrain in legal circles as soon as an election is called. It has been holding elections consecutively since 2006. “Only in January 2015 I didn’t go because I had just given birth. But when there were elections again, I went, and my mother brought me a child, and I fed him. I am speechless, I confess, I enjoy the excitement of the day. He constantly chooses Kefalonia, he has a house on the island, and “it’s one-sided too, so you’ll finish quickly.” Once in Kefalonia I went into a village of 70 people, in 20 minutes we finished counting.” Lots of people means big sections and lots of work. “Imagine that you are going to Heraklion with eight crosses. Not even God wants this. In general, Crete is complex, there are large sections of 600 registered and 400-450 visitors.”

He still remembers the elections in Halicarnassus. “All day long endless queue, 422 people. I didn’t have any help either. One came with his 6 children to the election commission. He says: “Here they will sit, I have nowhere to leave them.” What should we do with him, we told him to leave.” Elections are a problem because they are called citizens and they often don’t show up or do the job. “Once a girl in her 40s came, and as soon as we started working, I realized that she couldn’t count or write,” he says. There are many funny cases, but one case remained with her.

“A girl comes, a big girl, as they say in the villages, and goes on the screen. Time passes, and the villagers shout to her: “Are you finished, Varvara?”. “I’m done, I’m done,” he replies. An hour later, the same thing. Eventually they lost their patience. — What happened, Varvara, will you get out somehow? And then she opens the screen with the ballots in her hands, looks at them inquiringly and answers: “I have prepared it, take your time. Let me work in peace.”

Joanna Kapika
74 years old

I know what you vote for

Mytilini, Pogoniani, Thessaloniki, Halkidiki… He traveled to many places as a legal representative. Athens also dared. “A difficult undertaking, so everyone prefers the countryside. You finish work in the morning, and then you’re surrounded by hundreds of lawyers, and you stand in line for two, three, four hours with a bag on your shoulder to deliver. Is it still like this? I don’t know.” In 2019, he only survived the election as a voter. “Let there be room for juniors. It’s a significant income for the day, but it’s also very tiring.”

What does he remember about elections in previous decades? “Well, you know. It all happened to me. Party fights, doctor checkups and prescriptions on file. People ask me for my opinion on what to vote for. But I’ve always been childless and tried to make sure that voting is a private matter. I I think it’s a way to let the voters know it’s a very important process, but one day I got it from my grandmother in Pogoniani…” I mean? “Yes, he came out of the screen, came up to me and said: “Will you help me? I don’t know what to vote for.” I started an argument: “The vote is direct, private and secret. I can’t tell you what to vote for.” He looked at me with a sly smile and answered me the same. “But I know what you are voting for. You vote for Kirko””. He bursts out laughing and after a short pause exclaims: “Kirko! Imagine how old these Pogoniani elections are!”