ELAS, coast guard heads play down presence at rallies

The leadership of the Greek Police (ELAS) on Tuesday sought to play down the presence of ELAS chief Aristeidis Andrikopoulos, the official in charge of the force's operations in southern Greece, Christos Dragatakis, and the head of the Hellenic Coast Guard at SYRIZA's final campaign rally, led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, in Syntagma Square last Friday.
In a statement, ELAS indicated that the officials were at the event in order to oversee policing, adding that the official in charge of ELAS operations in northern Greece, Andreas Apostolopoulos, had inspected the security measures put in place for a speech by conservative New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Thessaloniki on Friday.
The disciplinary codes of both ELAS and the coast guard do not permit the presence of senior officials at political rallies. Specifically, the code stipulates that attendance at any...