Burundi-born ex-policeman Spiros Richard Hagabimana is seeking to become Greece’s first black MP, in a country where migrants rarely hold public offices.
He is contesting in the south-eastern Piraeus II electoral district under the conservative New Democracy party, in the 21 May election.
“Piraeus is the place where I studied, learned my first Greek words, worked and live. Through this area, I learned to love Greece,” one of Mr Hagabimana’s poll posters on Twitter reads.
The 54-year-old told the Reuters news agency how as a police office he was jailed in Burundi in 2015 for refusing to open fire on anti-government protesters.
He was later released from jail with the help of Greek authorities and returned to Athens in 2016.
Mr Hagabimana first arrived in Greece in 1991 on a scholarship to study at the Naval Academy. He graduated in 1996 but was forced to seek asylum in Greece as Burundi was then embroiled in a military coup, Reuters reports.
He received Greek citizenship in 2005 and in the same year he returned to Burundi for peacekeeping efforts with the UN.
He says the colour of his skin should not be the focus in the upcoming elections.
