Athens, October 04: Greeks began voting on Sunday in an election that the socialist opposition was expected to win due to discontent with the government’s failure to crack down on corruption and its handling of the economic crisis.
The socialist PASOK is not certain of gathering an outright majority, however, raising the risk of weeks of political limbo when the Mediterranean country, seen as the euro zone’s weakest link, must deal with an economy on the verge of recession.
Weakened by scandals and a fragile parliamentary majority, conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called the snap poll in September, gambling he had a better chance of winning now than later in his four-year term.
Opinion polls show a majority of Greece’s nearly 10 million voters have not been convinced by his call for two years of austerity to put the slowing economy back on track, to include a public sector wage and hiring freeze.
“I voted for PASOK because I was disappointed by the previous government. I want to see changes,” 59-year-old secretary Dimitra Seseri said after casting her vote in Athens.
PASOK’s leader George Papandreou has offered a very different strategy, promising a 3 billion euro ($4.36 billion) stimulus package for the economy on a ticket of taxing the rich and helping the poor.
Karamanlis, 53, a powerful speaker who appeals to the average Greek, and Papandreou, 57, a soft-spoken politician born in the United States, are heirs to two of Greece’s most powerful political dynasties and are facing off for the third time.
Karamanlis won in 2004 and 2007.
Budget Strains
Whoever wins will have to deal with a budget deficit topping 6 percent of GDP, the second-highest debt load as a percentage of GDP in the euro zone, rising unemployment and deep unhappiness with the education system and illegal migration.
After years of robust growth, Greece’s output, about 2.5 percent of the euro zone’s total economy, is set to slow to zero growth or even enter negative territory this year, with key drivers and job providers like tourism particularly hard hit.
Karamanlis said Papandreou’s ideas would plunge Greece deeper into crisis.
“PASOK and its leader promise unrealistic things which, if applied, would put a huge burden on people and bring the economy to a dead end,” he said at his last election rally on Friday, closing a one-month, relatively quiet campaign.
His challenger accused Karamanlis’ New Democracy government of failing to tackle endemic corruption and protect the economy.
“Let’s win our dignity back, with an economy that gives jobs to the young and keeps small businesses alive,” Papandreou told a rally in Athens on Thursday.
Greece last year suffered its worst riots in decades, triggered by the police killing of a teenager and fanned by high youth unemployment and disenchantment with the political system.
Leftists and anarchists have staged various attacks since then, culminating in the assassination of a policeman in June. Leftist guerrillas claimed responsibility for a bomb that went off on Friday near a Karamanlis rally but caused no injuries.
If PASOK does not get an outright majority, it has said it will call another election in which it would have an advantage with a 10-seat bonus, but which would take at least another 30 days.
Markets favour an outright winner, saying a strong government is needed to take on long-delayed structural reforms.
–Agencies