Greek elections: nation returns to the polls

But turnout appears to be low amid a sense of disillusionment at the prospects.

Tsipras was in what was expected to be a close election fight with the conservative New Democracy party.

– Pavlos Tsimas: Greece’s Election In The Time Of Consent Also on HuffPost: ‘.

Both Tsipras and Meimarakis casted their votes in the early morning and expect a high voter turnout. “Tomorrow a new day starts”.

However, then-PM Alexis Tsipras nonetheless agreed to the deal in July, sparking fury amongst citizens and within his own party.

“I fear that if Syriza is elected… the country will soon be led to elections again, and this would be disastrous”, he said.

Broadcaster ERT, meanwhile, said one polling station in an Athens suburb recorded only 25 voters in the first three hours.

The dominant issue of the campaign has been Greece’s dire economy and the government’s handling of the multi-billion dollar bailout deal with European creditors, which the country accepted in exchange for imposing harsh austerity measures.

Now, the policies for whichever party wins have already been set in the form of the bailout agreement, and the anti-bailout camp has been reduced to the Nazi-inspired extreme right-wing Golden Dawn, Popular Unity and the Communist Party.

Tspiras argues that his tough negotiations with Europeans softened the blow of austerity and helped secure a promise of debt restructuring that would ease Greece’s plight. So far, however, Tsipras has vehemently ruled out any coalition with New Democracy.

“The undecided votes on the left are gradually moving back to Tsipras”.

His main rival, New Democracy leader Vangelis Meimarakis, has dismissed Mr Tsipras’s term in office as “an experiment that cost [the country] dearly”.

He painted Mr 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.

“Voters want to send away… the lies, the misery, the posers and bring truth and real people”, Meimarakis told supporters on Sunday. Just under 10 million Greeks are eligible to vote.

“Given that the [third bailout] has been voted [on and passed] by an overwhelming majority of members of the Greek parliament, there is nothing at stake in these elections”, said Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos, assistant professor of political science at the University of Athens. Pasok seems to be rebuilding its popularity, a little, under new leader Fofi Gennimata. The ballot with her party list was stained and had to be replaced.

Golden Dawn, a far right party whose leaders have been charged with setting up a criminal organisation, could place third.

Steering the party towards the centre, the mustachioed former defence minister and parliament speaker says a grand coalition is needed to save Greece, but has given voters no vision to root for, save a pledge to do things better than Tsipras.

Whichever party wins may be unlikely to get enough seats to form a government alone.

Polls close at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT) and final results are expected by early Monday.