Greek voters will go to the polls again on Sunday, with conservative front-runner Kyriakos Mitsotakis seeking re-election and an absolute parliamentary majority to establish a “stable government.”
Polling stations began at 7:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) for the second round of general elections in five weeks, with the first exit polls due at 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) when polls close.
The 55-year-old Harvard graduate, who led Greece back from the coronavirus outbreak to two years of solid development, had already won a landslide victory in an election just a month before.
But, having fallen short of the five seats needed to establish a single-party administration, Mitsotakis elected to send 9.8 million Greek voters back to the polls.
Mitsotakis, who comes from one of Greece’s most powerful political dynasties, defeated his closest competitor, former socialist prime minister Alexis Tsipras, by more than 20 percentage points in the previous election.
Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party is widely expected to win because election regulations this time around will award up to 50 bonus seats to the winner of the vote.
The primary threat he faces is a higher no-show rate at the polls due to the perceived foregone conclusion.
He has urged his supporters to vote and has threatened a third election if he fails to secure a majority.
“I hope we don’t have to meet again in early August,” he told Skai TV hours before a campaigning blackout began Saturday, adding that “this is no joke”.
“All the gains we have made must be consolidated and continued,” he said.
