Athens (BLAZETRENDS).- The 21,500 polling stations in Greece have opened their doors at 07:00 local time (04:00 GMT) this Sunday so that the nearly 10 million citizens summoned to the polls can elect a new Parliament and Government.
According to the polls, only five of the total of 35 parties that are appearing in these general elections have the possibility of exceeding the required threshold, of 3% of the votes, to enter the Hellenic Parliament, of 300 seats.
The conservative New Democracy (ND) formation of the prime minister, the conservative Kyriakos, starts as a favorite with 32% of the intention of the vote, 6 points ahead of the leftist party Syriza, of former head of Government Alexis Tsipras (26%).
In third place, with 9%, is the Social Democrat Pasok-Kinal, followed by the Communist Party (6.5%), the leftist MerA25 of former Finance Minister Yanis Varufakis (3.5%) and the far-right Greek Solution party (3 ,2 %).
These are the first elections that Greece has held since it has been freed from the European Union’s economic supervision mechanisms, imposed after its first financial rescue in 2012 to get out of the crisis caused by high indebtedness.
With a clearly improved economic situation, strict surveillance and containment measures were lifted last year, after which citizens today choose between the continuity of the conservatives in power or a shift to the left.
Mitsotakis presents himself as the “only option” to guarantee stability and keep Greece on the path of growth, given the division of the left.
For his part, Tsipras proposes forming a “progressive government” with the Pasok-Kinal Social Democrats, although they have so far given no sign of accepting cooperation with him.
According to the polls, none of the parties will reach the minimum percentage of 45% necessary to win an absolute majority of 151 seats.
In the event that a government cannot be formed after these elections, new elections would be called at the beginning of July, in which a bonus of up to 50 seats would be reintroduced to the voted formation, which would thus reach 37% of the votes to have an absolute majority in Parliament.
After twelve hours of opening, the polls will close at 7:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. GMT).
The first data from the counting of the votes that allow “a safe estimate” of the final result are expected about an hour and a half later, around 5:30 p.m. GMT, the Interior Ministry announced.
