Greece’s left-wing Syriza party wins fifth election in six years

“In Europe today, Greece and the Greek people are synonymous with resistance and dignity, and this struggle will be continued together for another four years”, Tsipras said to cheering crowds, standing in a central Athens square.

New Democracy, led by Vangelis Meimarakis, who had promised that if his party is voted in it would banish “greyness, falsehoods and misery … and bring in authentic people for a better tomorrow for all Greeks”, conceded defeat.

Exit polls released earlier with the closing of the ballots by five polling firms for national broadcaster ERT and private channels gave SYRIZA 30-34 percent of votes versus 28.5-32.5 percent for ND. He said he felt “vindicated”, adding that his Syriza party will seek to honor “a clear [voter] mandate” to rebuild the Greek economy and “lift our country’s pride”. The third biggest party with 7.1 percent votes is Golden Dawn, the BBC reported.

“Nevertheless opinion polls suggest neither Syriza nor New Democracy would secure the 38 percent or so that should offer a majority of seats”.

The snap elections were triggered by the former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras who resigned last month after he managed to reach an agreement with the European Union and kept Greece in the eurozone, followed by a split within Syriza.

So in total it was very much a status quo election, with Greek voters largely sticking with the positions they held in January.

Left-wing Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras, left, waves to his…

Mr Tsipras’s party regards New Democracy as part of the old establishment responsible for the country’s economic woes which “piled debts on Greeks”.

Despite a tepid campaign that saw Mr Tsipras’s personal popularity fall sharply, preliminary results showed the 41-year-old’s Syriza party had won sufficient seats to form a coalition government in the coming days.

“On the one hand, the Greek electorate voted in exactly the same government: In short, nothing changed”, said Stathis Kalyvas, a professor of politics at Yale University. He painted Tsipras as a reckless, inexperienced politician who led the country toward a potential catastrophe and introduced strict banking restrictions in an effort to stem a bank run.

“This result is a message for Europe, that the left forces are present and that they can and will move things over the next period of time”, Kostas Tsipras, government official and a cousin of the former prime minister, told dpa.

Instead Mr Tsipras has risen from the ashes with his mandate renewed despite seemingly unprecedented low levels of voter turnout.

Mr Tsipras has publicly said he disagrees with the austerity measures to be implemented, but maintains that Greece would have faced bankruptcy and ejection from the Euro without it.

However, he warned of difficulties ahead and said economic recovery would not be easy.

The new government has little time to waste.