Greece election: Conservatives eye victory in repeat vote

Voters in Greece head to the polls on Sunday for the second time in little over a month to elect new parliamentarians.

About 9.8 million Greek voters will be electing their new representatives from a pool of 32 political parties standing in this election.

The polling will begin at 7 a.m. local time (0400 UTC) and continue for the next 12 hours across Greece. While initial forecasts will be available based on exit polls, the results are expected by around 1700 UTC.

The repeat election comes at the heels of a migrant shipwreck on June 14 in which hundreds of people are feared to have died.

Main parties standing in election

Polls have suggested strong prospects of victory for the conservative Nea Dimokratia, or New Democracy (ND), led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He has been Greece's prime minister since 2019.

Some polls have indicated that the party could take over 40% of the vote. Mitsotakis has touted a strong economy under his leadership.

The Alliance of the Radical Left (Syriza), led by Alexis Tsipras, could get the second-highest share of votes, with some polls suggesting that it could get 20%. Tsipras has criticized Mitsotakis over a wiretapping scandal and on migration.

In the elections held in May, Mitsotakis' party had a landslide victory but it fell short of just five seats in parliament to be able to form a single-party government.

Confident of winning with a clear majority in the 300-seat parliament, Mitsokasis decided to hold another round of voting.

As per election rules in Greece, the winner in this election round will get 50 bonus seats in the parliament.