ND returns, but with a reduced majority, as PASOK takes big hit

Voters send message to conservatives, Socialists as smaller parties pick up votes

A young PASOK supporter (below) looks pensive after hearing the results of exit polls that indicated the Socialist party had lost the general elections. ND leader Costas Karamanlis (left) celebrates with his wife Natasa at ND headquarters on Rigillis Street in central Athens as the conservative party looked set to return to power.

New Democracy was last night on the way to being voted back to power but with a substantially reduced majority as the right-wing nationalist Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) looked to have secured enough votes to gain seats in Parliament for the first time in its history.

The numbers available late last night did not contain results from Attica, which could change the picture slightly, but suggested a heavy defeat for PASOK, whose support seems to have dwindled since the 2004 election.

There appeared to have been a drift of votes to the Communist Party (KKE) and the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), who were set to virtually double the number of parliamentary seats they won three-and-a-half years ago.

With 49.05 percent of the votes counted late last night, New Democracy had a 43.64 percent share of the vote, PASOK was on 38.48 percent, KKE had garnered 7.32 percent, SYRIZA had gained 4.42 percent, while LAOS had 3.44 percent.

As the results stood, the conservatives would return to power with 157 MPs in the 300-seat Parliament. PASOK would have 103 seats, KKE 19, SYRIZA 12 and LAOS nine.

Voter participation was at about 71 percent with around a quarter of the votes counted last night.

Earlier, an exit poll conducted by VPRC on behalf of Kathimerini and Skai TV and Radio indicated that New Democracy would get 42 percent of the vote, PASOK 37 percent, KKE 8.5 percent, SYRIZA 5.5 percent and LAOS 4 percent.

Based on these projected results, New Democracy would again form a government with a clear, but slim, majority.

Under the electoral law that was implemented for the first time in yesterday's poll, 260 seats were allocated using a system of proportional representation but the remaining 40 are awarded to the party that wins the most votes.

Parties must receive at least 3 percent of the vote to enter Parliament.

ND leader Costas Karamanlis and PASOK chief George Papandreou were due to make statements in the early hours of the morning but various other key figures had made brief comments by last night.

»From tomorrow we will start working harder and with more optimism so we can change the country,» said ND's Health Minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos.

«The government will continue with reforms but with emphasis on the social state,» said Dimitris Sioufas, the development minister in the last government.

«This is a day of joy,» said Dora Bakoyannis, who is expected to continue as foreign minister.

«These are moments of joy but it is time for responsibility,» said LAOS leader Giorgos Karadzaferis, who left ND as an MP to form his party.

«You cannot hide the fact that this is a worrying result,» said PASOK's Petros Efthymiou, who stepped down from his position as party spokesman to stand as a candidate in Athens in yesterday's election.

«The political map is changing and PASOK is caught up in this change,» added Efthymiou. «We need to analyze how these changes affect PASOK.»

«From tomorrow PASOK will begin fighting to renew itself,» said author and PASOK parliamentary candidate Mimis Androulakis.

«We will try together to provide the correct answers that are required from tomorrow,» said Michalis Chrysochoidis, who served as a public order minister during a previous PASOK government and is one of those identified as a potential successor to Papandreou.

«PASOK could not make any inroads into the core of the government's policies,» said SYRIZA spokesman Alexis Tsipras.

«We have received a strong mandate to move forward together and with radical ideas,» said SYRIZA MP Yiannis Dragasakis. «Costas Karamanlis has not received a strong mandate and PASOK has proved an ineffective opponent for New Democracy.»