http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/10/200910416822365479.html
Monday, October 05, 2009
00:59 Mecca time, 21:59 GMT
Opposition 'wins' Greek election
Greece's socialist Pasok party has been out of
power for the last five years [AFP]
Greece's opposition Pasok party has won the country's national election
with enough seats to form a government, exit polls say.
Surveys by the Reuters news agency and other media showed the Pasok party
ahead with about 42.5 per cent of the vote following Sunday's parliamentary
elections.
The final result is expected to see the socialist Pasok take between 151
and 159 seats in Greece's 300-seat parliament.
The polls showed the ruling conservative New Democracy (ND) party, which
has held power for the last five years, trailing with 36.4 per cent of the vote.
"Exit polls in Greece tend to be fairly accurate, and even at the lowest
margin of the state broadcaster exit polls, the socialists have scraped home,"
Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from Athens, said.
'Historic win'
Pasok hailed the result as a "historic win".
George Papandreou, the Pasok leader, said: "We bear a great
responsibility to change the course of the country ... We know that we can make
it."
In focus
Greek voters seek clear direction
Jubilant supporters gathered outside the party headquarters, cheering and
waving Pasok flags depicting the party's symbol of a green rising sun.
Costas Karamanlis, the Greek prime minister who leads the ND party, later
conceded defeat and stepped down as the conservatives' leader.
Karamanlis had called the election halfway through his second four-year
term, saying he needed a strong new mandate to tackle Greece's economic
troubles.
But ahead of the vote, surveys suggested his party would lose power.
His conservatives have seen their popularity undermined by a faltering
economy and a string of corruption scandals.
Al Jazeera's Phillips said the corruption scandals had severely damaged
the New Democrat's chances.
"I think the over-riding sense of this election was 'throw the rascals
out', by which I mean that New Democracy was seen as corrupt and incompetent -
they had lost their touch," he said.
"But I don't think that has necessarily translated into enormous
enthusiasm for Pasok."
Economic challenges
Othon Anastasakis, the director of southeast European studies at Oxford
University in the UK, said that voters would demand decisive action from the
new government.
"Greece is used to voting for one or the other party ... There won't be a
period of grace, they [Greek voters] will start criticising from the
beginning," he told Al Jazeera.
Nikos Magginas, an economist with Greece's National Bank, said: "The main
challenge for the new government is to submit a credible budget and a realistic
timetable for reducing fiscal imbalances."
Both party's had run election campaigns promising to tackle corruption
and pull Greece out of economic crisis.
Papandreou promised a $4.36bn stimulus package, campaigning on a platform
of taxing the rich and helping the poor, Karamanlis called for two years of
austerity.
The vote was the third face-off for Papandreou, a US-born politician, and
Karamanlis, both the heirs to two of Greece's most powerful political dynasties.
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