ATHENS, May 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ party has registered a resounding victory at the election, the first results show but would likely call a new ballot in a month’s time as it fell short of an outright majority to rule alone.
With just over 50 percent of the ballot counted on Sunday, his New Democracy party was credited with 40.9 percent of the votes, a 20-point lead ahead of his nearest rival, Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza party, which garnered 20.1 percent.
Mitsotakis would either enter into tough negotiations from Monday with his rivals to seek a coalition, or he could opt to head to a new election, likely in early July.
Early reactions from his party’s leaders suggest that a new vote is well on the cards.
“It’s a huge surprise … an amazing result,” former foreign minister Nikos Dendias said.
Takis Theodorikakos, a minister and a senior official from Mitsotakis’ party, said that the result suggested that the conservatives could garner enough in a second election “to continue the reforms as an autonomous government”.
Another New Democracy minister Theodoros Skylakakis said the “other parties’ reactions show that we will be led to a second election”.
Senior Syriza official Dimitris Papadimoulis, a European Parliament vice-president, told state TV ERT that if confirmed, the result would be “significantly far” from the party’s goals and would mark a failure to rally opposition to the government.
Turnout reached only 56 percent as many had likely sat out the ballot given the anticipated second vote. — NNN-AGENCIES
