Kostas Peletidis was elected to a third term as mayor of Patras by 56.70% of voters and 98.55% of all votes counted nationally in Sunday's runoff local government elections.
Peletidis, belonging to the Communist Party of Greece, said that residents of the country's third largest city "defended their victories, the future of our children, and our city."
"The huge effort by the beneficiaries of the system and mechanisms of the government to get rid of 'Laiki Sispirosi' did not succeed," he said. "We can and must push obstacles aside. Whatever we lose is won by the few. The fighting demand of our rights from every government will continue."
The Communist Party-supported candidates in Sunday's regional and municipal elections was welcomed by party General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoubas, who said that five cities elected mayors from the party.
He particularly highlighted the victory of Kostas Peletidis for a third term in Patras, "despite a dirty war the city council experienced". The victory, Koutsoubas said, "is of a more general political importance that shows the features the resistance to antipopular policy must have, at local level and elsewhere."
The KKE leader also noted the high abstention rate that rose in the runoff elections, adding that "despite the fact we do not adopt such a stance, we believe nevertheless it contains a significant percentage of protest against local authorities who implemented the dominant policy."
Athens and Thessaloniki voted to change mayors during Sunday's runoff local government elections.
In Athens, incumbent Kostas Bakoyannis (44.04%) lost to Haris Doukas (55.96%), with 100% of votes counted.
Stelios Angeloudis, who won Thessaloniki's mayoral race in Sunday's runoff elections, said that his team's obligation was to give back to the city residents all they deserve, in statements after defeating incumbent Konstantinos Zervas.
"I want to thank all Thessaloniki residents, both those who honored us by their votes, but also those who chose differently. Also those who chose not to vote. It is now our responsibility to win their trust again through our work," Angeloudis said.
Angeloudis won the race with 67.31% of the votes with nearly all votes counted nationally (98.79%).
READ MORE: Municipal elections: Only 22 female mayors in Greece's 332 municipalities, no regional governors.
