2023 Crete regional election

The 2023 Cretan regional election took place on 8 October 2023, simultaneously with the rest of Greece. The election was for all 45 elected seats of the Regional Council of Crete as well as the Regional Governor.

This was the fourth Cretan regional election and the incumbent Governor (Stavros Arnaoutakis, PASOK) ran for a fourth consecutive term.

The ballot resulted in the election of Stavros Arnaoutakis, the incumbent Governor, as Regional Governor with 78% of the votes. The left-wing candidate, former SYRIZA MP Spyros Danellis, came in second with 11 percent. The KKE candidate, Alekos Marinakis, received 8 percent of the vote. The anticapitalist list failed to obtain 3% of the votes, thus losing its representation in the Council.

Electoral system
According to the new electoral system introduced by the New Democracy government in 2021, the majority percentage is defined as greater than 43% plus one vote of all valid ballots, instead of 50% plus one vote. In particular, the election of the regional governor is ensured from the first round, with an election threshold of 43%. If the first list receives up to 60%, it elects 3/5 of the regional council seats, while for more than 60%, the seats of each list are distributed proportionally.

Aftermath
As the "For Our Crete" list did obtain more than 43% of the votes in the first round, the second round did not take place. The new Regional Council members were sworn in on December 21, 2023. The ceremony took place in St. Marc's Basilica in Heraklion. Shortly after, Stavros Arnaoutakis announced the members of his fourth regional cabinet. It consisted of 11 thematic Vice Regional Governors: