Greeks have given a decisive victory to the conservative opposition New Democracy party in a general election regarded as one of the most significant since the collapse of military rule 30 years ago.
Early results from exit polls showed that they were leading by more than five points, 47.5% against the Socialist party Pasok’s 42%.
The Socialists were quick to concede defeat well before all votes were counted.
”New Democracy has won the elections,” said their leader, George Papandreou. ”I wish Karamanlis success in his work for the good of Greece.”
The KKE ”orthodox” Communist party was on about 6%, the exit polls showed, and the rest of the vote going to other leftwing parties and the far-right LAOS party.
The conservatives were last in power for a three-year spell more than 10 years ago.
Under Greece’s complex electoral laws the lead indicated last night would give New Democracy a clear majority of the 300 parliamentary seats, enabling it to take a tough stance on Athens’s problem-plagued preparations for the Olympic games and the thorny negotiations to reunite Cyprus.
Outside New Democracy’s party headquarters in central Athens thousands of jubilant supporters waved flags and honked horns.
Earlier in the day the party’s leader, Costas Karamanlis, cast his vote in the northern capital, Salonika, saying: ”This is the day of the voters and we have absolute confidence in their judgment.”
Forecasters had predicted that the election would be a dead heat.
About 80 000 Greeks living overseas were reported on Sunday to have flown in on chartered flights.
Since the election was called two months ago the New Democrats have consistently led in the opinion polls.
But their lead was believed to have ebbed dramatically when the popular former foreign minister George Papandreou took over the leadership of Pasok shortly before the election.
First elected in 1981, Pasok has been in power for all but three of the last 23 years.
Papandreou, the US-born son of the party’s charismatic founder, urged Greeks to elect his party for an unprecedented fourth consecutive term.
Greeks have traditionally voted for the left since the fall of the 1967-74 colonels’ junta.
Pasok was founded in 1974 from a resistance movement organised during the colonels’ reign.
But its many years in power have inevitably lead to accusations of corruption and political arrogance.
Despite his own popularity, and his promises of a root-and-branch clean-up of Pasok which would would include side-lining the ”barons” who have dominated successive governments, Papandreou has faced a considerable reluctance to give his party another term.
Many younger Greeks told the pollsters that they would be voting New Democracy, if only to see new faces in office.
”They [Pasok] were in power for so long they had become a regime,” said Tassos Gallos, a 23-year-old Athenian, after casting his vote.
”It’s crazy that we kept voting in socialist governments when the left is losing its grip across Europe.
”New Democracy will give us real change.”
The Socialists have also fallen foul of years of economic under-achievement.
Rising prices, falling living standards and 10% unemployment are the voters’ main complaints.
Karamanlis, whose uncle founded his own party, the National Radical Union, and led the country after the restoration of democracy, has promised to introduce a lean and effective government.
His political future hinged on the election result, and analysts believe he will act quickly to stamp his seal on the workings of government.
If he is elected, he will be the youngest prime minister in modern Greek history.
In the eight years since the 47-year-old politician assumed the leadership of the party, he has worked hard to move it to the centre, expelling several royalists and far-right MPs.
Olympic preparations will pose the conservatives’ biggest task to grapple if the games are to be a success.
In the run-up to the election, Karamanlis promised to retain key Olympic planning personnel if he won.
Almost half the Olympic-related projects, including the construction of a giant glass-and-steel dome over the main stadium, are behind schedule.
But powerful Socialist-dominated unions have already made it clear that they will press ahead with strike action and other forms of disruptive unrest if the conservatives win.
The new prime minister will also have to get to grips with Greece’s stagnant economy. And he will have to weigh in on the Cyprus negotiations, where the deadline for reuniting the Greek and Turkish communities before the island joins the EU in May is looming. Unless there is a deal the Turkish part of the island will remain outside the EU.
Voting is compulsory for Greece’s 10-million electors.
The parties need at least 3% of the vote to gain a seat in parliament.
Rising to the occasion
Costas Karamanlis
Born Athens, September 14 1956
Age 47
Background Nephew of Konstantin Karamanlis, Greek prime minister from 1955-1963 and 1974-1980
Education: Studied law at Athens University and economics at the American College of Greece. PhD from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston.
Career: First elected as a deputy for his native Salonika in 1989; took over helm of New Democracy in 1996, having risen through party ranks. Stepped up opposition to Pasok, and modernised own party, expelling extremists and moving to the centre-right. Narrowly lost 2000 election. Vice president of the European People’s party, the grouping of centre-right EU parties.
Government experience: None. ”Being a leader of the opposition party for eight years is experience enough to run the country,” he has said.
Personal: After years as a cigar-chomping bon viveur with a taste for Greek island nightlife, married Natassa in 1998; twins born in 2003. – Guardian Unlimited Â