Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis purged several scandal-tainted politicians from his Oct. 4 election ticket but analysts said it would likely not be enough to appease voters frustrated by a culture of corruption.
Final party lists published on Monday left out several former ministers who have been implicated in scandals. But analysts said New Democracy, trailing the socialists in polls, should have cleaned up house more drastically.
"New Democracy voters … see some people involved in scandals kicked out and some in. The scandals and the fact that he called early elections have angered voters," said political analyst Anthony Livanios.
Karamanlis rode a wave of discontent with decades of socialist scandals to win elections in 2004, promising to clean up Greek politics. But his party has been hit with its own accusations of graft, although no senior politician has been charged.
In fact, Greece's ranking on the Transparency International corruption watchdog's ranking has dropped a few notches in recent years.
"I have done my self-criticism where I am to blame," Karamanlis said in a speech earlier this month. "Corruption did not appear in the last five years, it's an endemic phenomenon of our society."
Karamanlis was compelled to sack one labour minister in 2007 for employing illegal Indian workers at his country home and another minister in 2008 for illegal property transactions between the state and a wealthy monastery.
In what was perhaps the biggest scandal of his five years in office, the sale of overpriced government bonds to state pension funds, Karamanlis in 2007 sacked the then-labour minister, Savvas Tsitourides, and reversed the deal.
Tsitourides, told last week he would not be on the ticket, lashed out at the government and his party and said they were "controlled by those favoured by corruption."
Polls show New Democracy voters supported his exclusion.
CORRUPTION AFFECTS ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE
From small bribes to civil servants to get things done quicker — known as the "fast stamp" — to paying hundreds or thousands of euros to state hospital doctors for operations that should be free, corruption affects almost all aspects of life.
"It's an important issue for Greeks," said Aris Syngros, manager of the Greek office of Transparency International.
A recent survey showed 93 percent of those asked thought it was a big problem but 53 percent also said they believed something could be done about it.
Socialist opposition leader George Papandreou has seen his ratings boosted since he made transparency a key campaign issue and is now close to winning elections outright.
"All signatures of ministers will be online, all decisions to be controlled by the public and the media, to see where the money is going," he told Reuters in an interview on Sunday.
Livanios said Papandreou's ticket was more likely to signal a change in Greek politics than that of New Democracy, which gave its old guard prominent, electable positions.
"For the average voter, the Socialist programme is more attractive on these points," he said.
