Greek go to the Polls in Sunday’s Snap Elections

September 20th, 2015

Awake Goy

nsnbc : Polling stations in Greece opened at 7:00 local time on Sunday. About 9.8 million registered Greek voters can participate in the snap elections called by caretaker PM Tsipras after his Syriza party was, arguably, forced to accept austerity measures, thus contradicting a clear “NO” expressed in a referendum.

Yiannis Kourtoglou/REUTERS

The snap elections for the 300 seats in the Greek parliament are widely considered as a cliffhanger. The parliament is elected for a four-year term. Candidates represent fourteen parties and five election alliances. The polls are expected to close at 20:00 local time.

Syriza PM Alexis Tsipras called for the snap elections after his party lost the majority in parliament after some 40 members of his party voted against the Third Economic Adjustment Program for Greece, worth 86 billion euro. The program came with strings attached; That is, at least three more years with additional austerity measures.

The situation led Tsipras to resign on August 20, to disband parliament and to call for a round of snap elections. Polls suggest that the election is literally a cliffhanger for Tsipras and Syriza even though Tsipras and Syriza have a marginal lead against the conservatives. Polls also showed that many were undecided.

The latest polls suggested a marginal, 0.7 – 3.0 % lead for Syriza and Tsipras over the New Democratic Party and Vangelis Meimarakis. Nine parties are expected to gain seats in parliament. Tsipras lost much support, including support from within Syriza, after his government acted against the unequivocal “no” of 61 % of those who participated in the referendum.

Supporters of Tsipras say that he and his administration “went down fighting” while others describe the Tsipras administration as an experiment that has cost Greece dearly. In January Syriza won a landslide election victory with 36.34 % of the votes.

The outcome of Sunday’s elections is expected to be known by Monday, even though the tight race may delay the announcement of the final result.

F/AK – nsnbc 20.09.2015

Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2015/09/20/greek-go-to-the-polls-in-sundays-snap-elections/