Roundup: Polls closing in Greek general elections, focus shifts to post election cooperation

With the closing of polls for the Greek general elections on Sunday afternoon and pollsters indicating a tight race between the Leftists and conservatives but no party securing a governing majority in the new parliament, focus shifted to post election alliances.

With both the Radical Left SYRIZA party of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the conservative New Democracy (ND) party led by Evangelos Meimarakis pledging their commitment to the implementation of Greece's third painful bailout in five years, the excitement of previous electoral battles was gone.

Regardless of which party tops Sunday's polls, most disillusioned Greeks, tired of the string of six national polls in six years plus one referendum on the latest bailout this July, shortly before the agreement with international lenders, seemed unwilling to celebrate and more interested in the post election consensus.

Shortly before the release of the exit polls, political analysts in Athens noted that undoubtedly the biggest winner of the elections will be abstention. In the Jan. 25 elections that brought SYRIZA in power with 36.3 percent versus 27.8 percent for ND, it stood at 35 percent.

On Sunday it was expected to easily exceed the 40 percent, while the winner of the elections was not expected to garner anything close to the 38 percent estimated that was needed to secure a slim absolute parliamentary majority of 151 seats in the new assembly.

All political leaders throughout the day urged people to participate in the general elections and decide for their future, while casting their ballots.

Both Tsipras and Meimarakis also appeared optimistic about the result for their parties.

"Greek citizens will take their future in their hands and seal the transition to a new era. They will give a mandate for continuity, stability and progress," Tsipras said after casting his vote in central Athens.

"Today voters instead of politicians are speaking their mind through their vote... I believe we can have a better future for all Greeks, because regardless of which party they vote for I believe we can and should have the trust of all even those who will not vote for us," said Meimarakis.

"I hope the result will vindicate Greek people's sacrifices," President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos said after casting his ballot, as caretaker Prime Minister Vassiliki Thanou assured that the elections were conducted in an impeccable manner.

Leaders of smaller parties such as the anti-bailout Communist party KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the pro-drachma Popular Unity chief Panagiotis Lafazanis and Panos Kammenos, leader of the Right-wing Independent Greeks party (ANEL) which co-ruled with Tsipras until August, also made pleas for a big turnout.

"Our biggest enemy is discordance," said Kammenos.

"We should all be ready to make small and fair compromises," added centrist River (Potami) head Stavros Theodorakis.

The River party as well as the socialists of PASOK who are running with the Democratic Left this time, were the most likely junior coalition partners in the next government, whether it will be Left-led or conservative-led, according to political analysts.

They were expected to each garner around 6.5 percent of votes (up from 6.1 percent and 4.7 percent respectively compared with January) and fight for the fourth place.

The far-right Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avghi) party was expected to retain the third place, according to pollsters, receiving 7.5 percent this time, up from 6.3 of the vote in the January elections, buoyed by disappointment at the stance of mainstream parties and the unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants this year.

The new assembly is expected to also include KKE which won 5.5 percent in January and for the first time since the Popular Unity founded in August by former SYRIZA MPs who walked away after Tsipras' U-turn and the center-Left Union of Centrists.

ANEL which had won 4.8 percent eight months ago was expected to fail to reach the 3 percent threshold needed to enter the parliament.

Shortly before the closing of the ballot boxes pollsters noted that several Greeks were disgruntled with the SYRIZA-ANEL government's inconsistency. In January both parties pledged to tear up bailouts and put an end to austerity. In the summer they co-signed the third bailout to avert financial meltdown and Grexit.

Following a party split over the bailout Tsipras quit in August, triggering the snap polls, asking 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 blamed Tsipras of a disastrous handling of the crisis that led to capital controls in late June and played the "experience for stability" card.

"None of the political parties can bring back hope in our lives anymore. Even Tsipras betrayed us, we saw further cuts in our pensions and who knows what will follow," 61-year-old pensioner Aspasia Pavlopoulou told Xinhua outside a polling station in central Athens.

"Too little can change I am afraid. Sadly, the European lenders and IMF are pushing hard on the implementation of the third loan agreement which emphasizes further on austerity and other destructive measures which have shrunk the economy and sent the country down an unprecedented recessionary spiral. Therefore, there will be limited room for sovereign policy making," 29-year-old Software Engineer Manolis added.

The first official estimates on the results of Sunday's snap national polls were expected to be released by the Interior Ministry at around 9 p.m. local time (1800 GMT). Endit