The upcoming presidential elections in 2023 may have a record number of candidates compared to any other year, head of the elections service Menelaos Vasiliou said on Tuesday.

“It is not confirmed yet as candidacies will be submitted on January 5, 2023, however it seems like it will break the 2013 record which was 11 candidates.”

Though the election hopefuls may be increasing, this does not reflect in the number of people who want to vote for them.

Since October 3 to date, there have been 1,882 applications to register to vote. For the same period in 2018, the figure was around 10 times higher with 10,400 registrations.

“Members of the public have until December 27,” Vasiliou noted.

The state budget for the upcoming presidential elections amounts to €7 million. The submission for each candidacy is €2,000.

Registrations to vote abroad amounted to 1,117, Vasiliou said. There must be more than 50 registrations to have a voting centre abroad. So far, the number has been exceeded in Brussels, Patras, Thessaloniki, Athens and London.

There were 33 centres to vote abroad in 2018.

At the same time, unemployed persons with a degree can apply to work at voting centres to help with vote counts. Applications are open until December 20.