Greek Communists gain in local voting

Greece's pro-Moscow Communist Party boosted its position considerably in municipal elections, mainly at the expense of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou's Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok).

A survey of voting figures showed that in almost all places where the Communists fielded candidates against Pasok, their share of the vote was up by 50 to 100 percent, compared with last October's general election. The municipal vote was the first test of Greek opinion since the parliamentary election last year which put Mr. Papandreou in power with 48 percent of the vote. The New Democracy had 34 percent and the Communists had 11 percent.