The leftwing Syriza party is set to return to power in Greece, general election exit polls indicated on Sunday.

At least five TV channels, including state-run ERT, reported that former prime minister Alexis Tsipras’ party had a lead over the centre right New Democracy party. A Star TV poll put Syriza’s share of the vote at between 30% and 34% compared to 28.5% to 32.5% for the conservatives. The ultra- nationalist neo-fascist Golden Dawn came in a distant third with as much as 8%.

If the polls are confirmed in the official result it would show that Syriza supporters had rallied to ensure that the left was not kicked out of office after seven tumultuous months in power. Tsipras’ landslide victory in January marked the first time the radical left assumed governance in a country where the communist party was banned in the aftermath of the brutal 1946-49 civil war.

But analysts emphasised that the final result would depend to great degree on the abstention rate following widespread reports that turnout was abysmally low – reflecting voter disillusionment in a country plagued by crisis for the best part of six years.

In the picturesque district of Plaka, beneath the ancient Acropolis, monitors described the failure to cast ballots as perhaps the biggest winner of the day.

“Around 600 should have voted here today and only around 100 did,” one monitor told the Guardian.

As he cast his ballot on Sunday morning, Tsipras asked Greek voters to deliver a “fighting government” capable of “moving forward with difficult reforms”.

“The Greek people will take their future into their own hands ... and seal the transition to a new era,” Tsipras said after voting in the working-class Athens district of Kypseli. “I’m confident.”



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Last-minute polling before voting booths opened put Tsipras a point or two ahead of his centre-right rival, Vangelis Meimarakis of New Democracy, but the advantage was within pollsters’ margins of error.

Whoever wins will have the same daunting to-do list, both leaders having already committed to implementing the draconian terms of Greece’s latest €86bn bailout: a radical overhaul of the country’s shattered economy and major changes to its welfare, pensions, health and taxation systems.

Fresh funds will not be released unless the cash-for-reforms programme is implemented, with progress – in the form of about 120 new laws by the end of the year – to be reviewed quarterly by Greece’s international creditors.

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“It’s a strange election, very frustrating, profoundly undemocratic, because the big policy questions have been decided so we can’t express our political will,” said George Papanikolaou, a genetics lecturer, among a thin straggle of morning voters at a central Athens polling station. “It’s about micromanagement issues, not vision.”

Tsipras swept to victory in January pledging to “eradicate” austerity, but after months of sometimes brutal negotiations, with capital controls in place and ejection from the eurozone looming, the youthful 41-year-old premier was forced to perform an about-turn.



The government’s ultimate acceptance of the deal, despite more than 60% of voters rejecting austerity in a July referendum, has left legions of its supporters feeling betrayed – although many still believe Tsipras, despite his mistakes, represents a necessary break with corrupt past regimes.

Students Xenia Stoumpou, 23, and Valerian Portokalis, 25, said they had opted for Syriza because Tsipras deserved a second chance. “He only had seven months in office, and for almost all that time he was completely occupied with the negotiations,” Portokalis said.

“At least he tried to do something for us. And we really don’t want a return to the old parties that governed Greece for so long. Tsipras is a genuine break form all that. It’s just too soon to judge him.”

With policy issues largely off the agenda, the electoral campaign has focused mainly on personalities and on past records. Meimarakis, a blunt-spoken 61-year-old former defence minister and parliamentary speaker, accused Tsipras of youthful inexperience and, worse, rank incompetence.

The Syriza leader had held out “false promises” about being able end the punishing austerity measures that have seen Greece’s economy shrink by a quarter and left nearly 26% of its workforce unemployed, claimed Meimarakis, whose efforts to move his party more towards the centre ground were rewarded with an unexpected bounce in its popularity.

Tsipras in turn argued that Meimarakis is a diehard representative of the mainstream parties that led Greece over the fiscal cliff and into the economic abyss. Voters must must turn their backs on self-interest and the “oligarch establishment” that brought the country to its knees, he said.

Neither party looks likely to secure the roughly 38% share of the vote needed for an outright majority in Greece’s 300-seat parliament. Whoever wins will need the support of perhaps two smaller parties, leaving coalition talks – most likely with the other main pro-European parties, the centrist To Potami and socialist Pasok – a near certainty.



Tsipras has repeatedly ruled out collaborating with New Democracy, an option Meimarakis has held out. Greece’s creditors have hinted they would favour a “grand coalition” which might enjoy the broad backing that will be needed to implement the bailout reforms.

But Syriza and New Democracy would in all likelihood make uneasy bedfellows, disagreeing profoundly on several key issues including freeing up the Greek labour market, collective bargaining and immigration.

Several voters said they were unsure how to cast their ballot even while they were climbing the polling station steps. “They’re all as bad as each other,” said Yannis Fotopoulos. “Either they look after themselves and their friends, or they break their promises. My pension has been cut by a third, that’s all I care about.”

By late afternoon it had become clear that the abstention rate was much higher than the last general election in January, with polling stations reporting a drop of at least 10 percent in turnout.

Political personalities, almost without exception, called on voters to exercise their democratic right. Casting his ballot in the working class district of Korydallos, the leader of the small anti-euro, anti-austerity Popular Unity party Panagiotis Lafazanis appealed to Greek youth - the victims of record levels of unemployment - not to abstain.



“For us, the priority in these elections is youth,” he said, emphasising that the failure to vote would inevitably result in more austerity. “We again call [on people] to say a big ‘no’ to memoranda and austerity,” added the former energy minister who breaking ranks with Syriza in July lead the internal revolt that forced Tsipras to call the snap poll.



His message was echoed by the legendary leftist Manolis Glezos who implored voters not to ignore what he described as a decisive poll nearly six years after the eruption of Greece’s debt crisis



“Today’s elections are definitive for the course of the country,” said the nonagenarian, for many the face of resistance not only against brutal German occupation but brutal German-imposed austerity.



“All power springs from the people, belongs to the people and is exercised by the people,” insisted the political veteran who now heads Popular Unity’s list of honorary state MPs.

About 9.8 million Greeks, many suffering election fatigue, are eligible to cast their ballot. In theory, voting is compulsory but the rule is not enforced; turnout for this election is thought likely to fall below the 64% recorded in January.

The main results – which is the biggest party, and who has how many seats – should be clear by about 10pm (8pm BST) local time.



