Voters in Greece headed to the polls Sunday to take part in
parliamentary elections amid wide uncertainty over what government will
emerge and how it will handle the austerity crisis gripping the nation.
No party is expected to win a majority of the vote, meaning a coalition will again have to be formed.
The outgoing coalition
government pushed through a series of painful austerity measures in
order to secure emergency bailout funding for Greece, which is at the
center of the eurozone debt crisis.
The two main parties that
formed that coalition in November, PASOK and New Democracy, are
expected to lose votes to a raft of smaller parties as people express
their unhappiness at their country's economic plight.
Campaigning came to a close on Friday.
Evangelos Venizelos,
leader of the left-leaning PASOK party, declared "everything is at stake
Sunday," as he addressed a final campaign rally in the capital's
central Syntagma Square, scene of many anti-austerity protests.
Voters
have a choice, he said, to "remain in the eurozone and follow a
difficult yet safe path" that will help the country get through the
austerity measures -- or to follow "a dangerous path that can take us 20
years back, lead the country to bankruptcy and Greeks to massive
poverty."
Antonis Samaras, leader
of the right-leaning New Democracy party, urged voters to swing behind
his party at a rally in Athens on Thursday.
He called for "a strong
mandate to change everything ... I don't want to rule jointly with PASOK
and it is not in the interest of the Greek people for such a joint
governance to take place."
Opinion polls suggest New Democracy will take about a fifth of the vote, with Pasok a few points behind.
Far right parties are
among the fringe groups expected to benefit from voters' disillusionment
with the two biggest parties' backing for austerity measures.
The extreme right Golden
Dawn, an ultra-nationalist party that blames immigrants for many of
Greece's problems, may take more than 5% of the vote and claim seats in
parliament, opinion polls suggest. Two years ago, it commanded only
0.28% support. Some members of the party have been linked with violent
extremism.
Another far right party, LAOS, could take about 3% of the vote.
Parties on the other end of the political spectrum may also win greater support.
Surveys indicate SYRIZA,
the Coalition of the Radical Left, could take just over 10% of the
vote, with the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), which wants Greece to
leave the single currency eurozone, close behind.
KKE leader Aleka
Papariga told supporters Wednesday that the debate over whether or not
Greece should stay in the eurozone was pointless. "Without a radical
political change, a large section of the people will be fully
bankrupted," she warned.
While the mainstream
parties are still expected to win a greater share of the vote, the rise
of fringe parties has had an impact on campaigning.
In
a gesture to right wing concerns, for example, New Democracy has
promised to be much tougher on illegal immigration if elected.
While his party backed
the bailout deal, Samaras has said it doesn't allow enough scope for
growth and wants to push through further privatization and cuts to
public sector waste.
The austerity measures
have already led to cuts in jobs, wages, pensions and benefits, and have
badly affected many people, especially pensioners and those needing
state help.
Taxes have gone up and unemployment is high, leading many young people to leave the country to seek work elsewhere.
The country's massive
pile of debt has threatened the stability of the 17-country eurozone
during a crisis that has dragged on for almost two years.
Greece pushed through a
huge debt swap in March to save it from disorderly default and clear the
way to receive its second bailout from the European Union, the European
Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, worth €130 billion
($171.5 billion).
The debt restructuring
deal gave some breathing space to the euro zone bloc, where fears that
Greece might collapse had increased pressure on other debt-laden nations
such as Spain and Italy.
But the outcome of Sunday's vote will be closely watched to see if Greece is able to stick with the painful path of austerity.
Source: CNN News