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[h=4]Snap Greek vote to deliver verdict on Europe[/h]Greeks were voting Sunday in a general election that could determine the country's financial future amid concerns it may lead to it leaving the eurozone.
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Greeks were voting on Sunday in an early general election crucial for the country's financial future. AP
A man casts his vote at a polling station as the map of Europe is seen on the wall in Athens, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015.(Photo: Thanassis Stavrakis, AP)
Greeks were voting Sunday in a general election that could determine the country's financial future amid concerns it may lead to it leaving the eurozone.
The general election pits the radical left Syriza party of Alexis Tsipras — the favorite to win, polls show — against incumbent conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' New Democracy party.
The election was being held nearly two years ahead of time and Syriza has run on a campaign of renegotiating the nation's $270 international bailout deal with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Voting was expected to finish at 7 p.m. local time (12 noon ET) and exits polls may be available within in a few hours.
Last year, Greece's debt topped $369 billion, or about $34,600 for each resident. Its growth rate has dropped 30% compared to seven years ago at the start of the first financial crisis. It has been crippled by a 26% unemployment rate and a third of the population lives below the poverty line.
Tsipras has pledged to reverse many of the reforms pushed through to qualify for the rescue loans that have kept Greece financially afloat for the past four years. The country's creditors insist Greece must abide by its commitments to continue receiving support, and investors and markets alike have been spooked by the anti-bailout rhetoric.
Talk of a "Grexit" — in which Greece would drop the euro currency it shares with 19 other European countries — has been less fraught than during a previous election in 2012, but it is still a possibility if the Syriza party wins and insists on new terms for its debt repayments not acceptable to its creditors. Germany is especially resistant to the idea of a new debt deal for Greece.
The vote comes just a few days after the ECB unveiled a monetary stimulus program that will see it purchase around $68.4 billion a month in bonds to counter falling prices, hold down interest rates and spur economic growth in the region.
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Opinion polls released Friday showed that around 10% of voters were still undecided in their allegiances in the days before the election. To form a government on its own, a party needs 151 of parliament's 300 seats. Without that, whichever party wins will have to try forming a coalition government with another party.
The first three parties each have three days to try and form a coalition government to avoid a second election being called within a month. To Potami, a centrist party, and Golden Dawn, a right-wing group, were expected to contest for third place.
Alternatively, the party that gets the most votes could attempt to form a minority government. Under that scenario, other parties would agree to vote along lines advocated by the party with the most votes without specifically entering into in a power-sharing deal.
Contributing: Nikolia Apostolou in Athens; Associated Press
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