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ATHENS — Greece’s conservative ruling party was leading in Sunday’s election, according to early exit polls, but a second round of national voting is the most likely scenario.
The New Democracy Party of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held a significant lead over its main rival, the left-wing Syriza party, according to first exit polls published jointly by six polling agencies after the ballots closed. Up to seven parties were likely to pass the 3 percent threshold and enter parliament, according to the projections.
Nonetheless, New Democracy didn’t gather enough votes — 45 percent — to win an outright majority, as these elections are being held under a new proportional representation system.
Even though a coalition government would be possible, Mitsotakis has made no secret of the fact that he would prefer a majority government, and would hold out for the second round of voting, when he is poised to garner an absolute majority thanks to a system that grants the winning party up to 50 bonus seats in parliament.
That means Greeks will probably head to the ballot boxes again by early July.
The participation rate was at 48.8 percent as of 4:30 p.m., the Interior Ministry reported.
Mitsotakis apparently emerged unscathed by the last four years of his premiership, despite being burdened with a spying scandal, spiraling inflation and mounting concerns over the rule of law.
