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With two weeks left before snap elections in Greece, parties have submitted requests to participate in the poll. Our correspondent Helena Smith reports from Athens:

It’s official: Athens’ Supreme Court has this afternoon received submissions from 19 parties – and five coalitions – to take part in fresh elections on September 20.



The poll, the third this year, will see the election of a fifth government to navigate Greece through an economic crisis now seen as its worst in modern times. Eighteen parties and four coalitions contested the last elections on January 25.



The Supreme Court will have the last say over the applications with judicial sources not ruling out the possibility of some of the smaller groups being excluded from the ballot. A decision is expected to be made in the coming days.

Successive opinion polls have shown outgoing prime minister Alexis Tsipras’ radical left Syriza party running neck and neck with centre right New Democracy party. The vast majority of analysts are now describing the race as too close to call – a huge turn around for Tsipras who had envisaged an easy victory when he called the election barely seven months after assuming office.

Alexis Tsipras speaks at a press conference during his visit to the Thessaloniki International Fair. Photograph: Alexandros Michailidis/Demotix/Corbis

But top Syriza cadres are today expressing optimism supporters are beginning to rally amid mounting evidence, they say, that the breakaway anti-austerity Popular Unity established by 25 Syriza rebels is failing to gain ground. The party was established days after Tsipras announced he would accept more excoriating austerity in exchange for a third, €86bn bailout to prop up the debt-stricken Greek economy. Aides are hoping that Wednesday’s hotly anticipated debate among party leaders will also swing undecided voters estimated at anywhere between 15 to 20% of the electorate.

Addressing reporters at the country’s annual international trade fair in Thessaloniki this afternoon, Tsipras once again ruled out entering any form of power-sharing arrangement with New Democracy despite polls showing that no party is on course to win an absolute majority. That has raised the prospect of crisis-plagued Greece being plunged into yet more political uncertainty after the election.