Gabriel Sakellaridis

The government was expected to make the long-awaited announcement of the name of its candidate for the position of the President of the Republic tonight, after 20.00.

However, as it was announced a few minutes ago by NERIT public broadcaster, the announcement has been postponed.

By Eleni Chrepa

Greek officials and the country?s creditors extended discussions through the weekend, as they raced to make progress ahead of the meeting of euro-area finance ministers in Brussels on Monday.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras chaired a meeting of his cabinet on Friday night to brief ministers on the state of talks with the eurozone but also to assess his own room for maneuver ahead of Monday?s Eurogroup.

By Ben Sills and Eleni Chrepa

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reached out to Greece?s creditors, saying he?ll iron out the kinks in relations with the rest of the euro area days after his government lodged a complaint about the German finance minister.

Greek officials did not agree to sign a joint statement following Wednesday's Eurogroup meeting in Brussels because of the draft's wording, government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis said speaking on several local medial outlets on Thursday.

Greece?s government on Wednesday said it was sticking to plans to halt the sale of its two biggest ports, Piraeus and Thessaloniki, rebuffing reports it was having second thoughts.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday met with key government officials ahead of announcing his party's program on Sunday and an extraordinary meeting of eurozone finance ministers to discuss Greece next week, the Athens-Macedonian News Agency reported.

A circulated “non paper” — by the government itself – in tandem with an official statement by government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis that a SYRIZA government will not “flip flop” on the debt issue attempted to allay scrutiny on Tuesday of an “about face” in terms of policy.

The “non paper” made the following points, in telegraph fashion:

Leftist SYRIZA party of Alexis Tsipras is heading for a huge victory in Sunday's snap election, according to first official projections which give it 36.5 percent of all ballots.

Official information at 22:00 lowered its result at 35.7 percent with 40% of ballots counted.