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Greek PM calls on voters to "avoid adventures" amid general elections

Xinhua, January 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called on voters to "avoid adventures" on Sunday, as early general elections were underway.

"These elections are decisive for our future and the future of our children. Today we decide whether we will move forward with strength, security and certainty or whether we will enter adventures," the conservative leader said after casting his ballot at the southern Peloponnese peninsula city of Pylos.

In a last-minute bid to convince voters to support his party, Samaras focused on the undecided.

"They will decide the result. I am optimistic, because I believe that nobody will risk our country's European course. We will win," he said.

The outcome of the general polls will determine whether debt-laden Greece will stay on the austerity and reform path or shifts its course.

Samaras' New Democracy Party has proposed continuing reforms and talks with European Union and International Monetary Fund on the terms of cooperation after the bailout program expires in late February.

Radical Left SYRIZA party, which leads in opinion polls, has suggested a more aggressive attitude in negotiations with lenders, demanding a fresh debt relief.

About 10 million Greece voters were expected to cast their ballots at 19,449 polling stations Sunday across the country.

Polling stations opened at 7:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) and will close at 7:00 p.m. local hour (1900 GMT).

First exit polls are expected shortly after the voting ends. The first official estimates will be released by the Interior Ministry at around 21:30 local time (1930 GMT). Endi