With more than 600,000 registered ND members voting, and with almost three-quarters of precincts counted, Samaras had garnered 50.18 percent of ballots compared to Dora Bakoyannis' 39.76 percent. Thessaloniki Prefect Panagiotis Psomiadis was a distant third, with 10 percent.
With the online voting system out of service for more than an hour at a time at many polling stations around the country, many voters had to be registered by hand and then entered online later. Many voters waited between 90 minutes and two hours to vote.
Divided they stand
Psomiadis charged that party "thugs" had intimidated ND members into not voting for him. With his 10 percent, he said he now represents a "third current" in the party.
Samaras must now try to put together the political pieces after ND, in October, suffered its worst electoral defeat in its history. He must also try to bring unity to a party bitterly divided by a leadership contest in which nearly all MPs and officials fought tooth-and-nail for one of the two top candidates.
In his victory speech, the new conservative leader said he would wipe away all the campaign attacks against him "with a sponge". But he also declared that the party base - and he - will not tolerate any move to undermine his authority.
While he said he will hold a party convention in a few months to craft ND's new political direction and strategy, it is already clear that Samaras has reserved a top party post for former health minister Dimitris Avramopoulos.
Key move
The moderate Avramopoulos' decision to endorse Samaras played a pivotal role in establishing the new leader's momentum, which started building at the party convention.
Bakoyannis was for years considered the favourite to succeed former ND leader Kostas Karamanlis, but her lead dwindled after Avramopoulos sided with Samaras. Her decision to campaign on Samaras' 1993 decision to leave ND to form a splinter party did not sway voters.
Samaras' effort to link Bakoyannis with the failed policies of the Karamanlis government, and with its many scandals, seemed to have had an impact. Samaras' camp argued that Bakoyannis was a member of the inner cabinet and had supported Karamanlis' move to hold disastrous snap polls.
Bakoyannis conceded defeat in a televised speech at 1.15am on election night as it became clear Samaras had an insurmountable lead nationwide.
