2nd LD Writethru: Voting starts in Greek general elections

Greek voters started casting their ballots Sunday in the second general elections this year to elect a new government that will implement the latest three year bailout agreed in the summer with international creditors.

Polling stations are open eanrly in the morning. About 9.8 million citizens of 18 years and above registered to vote in 19,457 polling stations nationwide. New voters are 108,464.

With both the front runners, the Radical Left SYRIZA party of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the conservative New Democracy (ND) party led by Evangelos Meimarakis, as well as several smaller parties committed to the implementation of the bailout this time as Greece's last chance to exit the five year crisis, enthusiasm and passion are lacking.

SYRIZA and ND were almost tied in all opinion surveys conducted over the past month with the Leftists gaining a slight lead within the marginal error in the final stretch, according to pollsters.

A few hours before the ballots open for the fifth national polls in six years, about 10 percent of voters were still undecided and pollsters expected high abstention rates of more than 45 percent due to voter fatigue and dissapointment.

In the past elections in recent years Greeks headed to the polls to choose between the pro-bailout and pro-euro forces and anti-austerity and anti-bailout parties, with SYRIZA leading the latter.

In the Jan. 25 elections, SYRIZA won and formed the first Left-led government in Greece's modern history.

After marathon negotiations with lenders and the closure of banks to avoid collapse of the banking system when the second bailout expired in late June, Tsipras made a U-turn and signed the third bailout to avert disorderly default and Grexit.

Following a party rift over the bailout, the 41-year-old premier quit, triggering the snap polls. He asked voters for a second opportunity to rule with a new stable government.

SYRIZA tried to woo voters this time by pledging to make the utmost effort to ease the pain of the new round of austerity policies.

ND, on the other hand, offered "stability over incosistency and risky experiments."

In the past, the dilemmas put forward were more dramatic as SYRIZA was threatening to tear up bailouts and the country's fate was hanging in balance, political analysts in Athens noted. This time the question is which party will better implement the same plan.

Regardless of which party comes first surveys showed that none of the two frontrunners are close to gaining absolute majority in the next 300 member strong parliament, therefore coalition partnerships are required.

The ultra-Right Golden Dawn party is expected to retain the third place, according to pollsters.

The most likely next junior coalition partners for a Left-led or a conservative-led government according to analysts were the centrist River party and the socialists of PASOK who are running with the Democratic Left this time.

The next assembly is expected to include the Communist party KKE, the anti-bailout Popular Unity founded in August by former SYRIZA MPs and the centre-Left Union of Centrists.

The minimum requirement for parliamentary representation is 3 percent of the vote.

Under the Greek electoral system, the party that wins the first place gets 50 bonus seats to help form a strong stable government. The rest of the 250 seats are allocated on a proportional basis.

The overall percentage of the parties which will fall below this threshold affects the percentage of the vote the winner needs to secure an outright majority.

For example, if parties which will not enter the next parliament gather jointly 4 percent, the first party needs 38.8 percent to gain majority. If their overall percentage is 7 the winner needs 37.6 percent.

First exit polls are expected shortly after the voting ends. The first official estimates on the results will be released by the Interior Ministry at around 9 p.m. local time. Endi