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Greek anti-austerity party Syriza leads exit polls with 35.5% to 39.5% of vote

Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left), which is headed by 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, rose to popularity after it promised to renegotiate Greek debt and put an end to austerity in the country.

In Greece, a political party requires between 36 and 40 percent of the vote in order to secure an outright win, with the exact figure depending on the share of the vote taken by parties that failed to pass the 3 percent threshold required to enter parliament.

According to the exit polls, seven parties are on the way to making it into the new Hellenic Parliament, which is comprised of 300 MPs.

The election was held earlier than scheduled because of the failure of the parliament to elect a new Greek president on December 29 last year.

The presidential candidate presented by the government, Stavros Dimas, had failed to secure the required majority votes from MPs across three rounds of voting.

This means that Syriza will occupy between146 and158 seats in the Greek parliament, while New Democracy will likely have to settle for between 65 and 75 seats.

One hundred and fifty one seats are required for a party to form a government on its own.

http://rt.com/news/226119-greece-election-results-syriza/