ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s election, which has captured the eyes of the world, is too close to call with the conservative New Democracy party barely ahead of radical leftist SYRIZA in a vote that could decide whether the country stays in the euro zone.
A joint exit poll by five pollsters, published as voting closed on Sunday, showed New Democracy taking between 27.5 percent and 30.5 percent of the vote. SYRIZA was essentially level with 27-30 percent, followed by the PASOK Socialists taking 10-12 percent of the vote.
SYRIZA has vowed to tear up the terms of an EU/IMF bailout package keeping Greece from bankruptcy, potentially sending the country crashing out of Europe‘s single currency. New Democracy broadly backs the bailout, as does PASOK.
The party that comes in first secures a dividend of 50 parliamentary seats which will be crucial to its chances of forming a new government. Another pollster refused to call the result because it was too close.
Exit polls in an earlier May 6 election, which produced stalemate, gave a good indication of the way the vote had gone. The official projection, which is expected at 9.30 p.m. (1830 GMT), was very close to the final result.
“Greeks voted with emotion and not with reason, this is why you see these numbers,” said manufacturing worker Evangelos Datsos, 60, at a New Democracy kiosk in Syntagma
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