Greece’s conservative Nea Dimoklatia is likely to win Sunday’s general election, but falls well short of the majority needed to win the general election, early election polls show.
The party of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to win 36-40% of the vote.
The center-left Syrian Party, led by his predecessor Alexis Tsipras, is far behind at 25-29%.
If neither party can form a coalition, Greek voters will vote again in a second round in early July.
A joint election poll by six pollsters was greeted with jubilation at the New Democracy headquarters in Athens. But experts warn that the information may be unreliable as many voters refuse to reveal which party they support.
One of the big winners in the election appeared to be Pasok, SYRIZA’s socialist rival estimated to have won between 9.5 and 12.5 percent of the vote.
That would make the party a powerful figure in coalition talks with the center-right and Syriza in the coming days.
Mitsotakis’ center-right party ruled Greece for four years and can boast that the country grew by almost 6 percent last year.
But February’s election campaign was overshadowed by a railroad accident that killed 57 people, including many students. Opposition parties stressed that the disaster was a symptom of a dysfunctional state returning to its essentials after years of economic crisis and underinvestment.
Four years ago, 40% of the vote was enough to secure a majority in the 300-member Greek parliament.
Since the winner of the first round will no longer get his 50-seat bonus, he now needs more than 45% of the seats, making a second round more likely.
