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| Syriza set to return to power in Greek general election | Syriza set to return to power in Greek general election |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| The leftwing Syriza party is set to return to power in Greece after its closest rival conceded defeat in the general election. | The leftwing Syriza party is set to return to power in Greece after its closest rival conceded defeat in the general election. |
| The leader of the centre-right New Democracy party said Syriza, led by former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, had come first in the poll with early results showing that it had taken about 35% of the vote. “The election result seems shows that the first party is Syriza and Tsipras. I congratulate him,” said Vangelis Meimarakis. | |
| Related: Greek election live: Syriza on course for victory as New Democracy concedes – live updates | Related: Greek election live: Syriza on course for victory as New Democracy concedes – live updates |
| The interior ministry announced that with 33.8% of the total vote counted, Syriza won 35.4% compared with 28.1% for New Democracy. The latest projection puts Syriza on 145 seats in the 300-seat parliament, paving the way for the party to reform its coalition with the rightwing, anti-austerity Independent Greeks party. | |
| If the projections are confirmed, it would show that Syriza supporters rallied to ensure that the left was not kicked out of office after seven tumultuous months in power. Syriza was elected in January with a mandate of overturning an austerity programme imposed by international creditors, but was instead forced to accept draconian reforms as part of an €86bn (£63bn) deal struck in July. | |
| The landslide victory by Tsipras at the beginning of the year marked the first time the radical left formed the government in a country where the communist party was banned in the aftermath of the brutal 1946-49 civil war. However, Syriza’s shortlived period in power was marked by the confrontation with lenders that led to capital controls being imposed across the country’s banking system before a deal was struck in Brussels. | |
| Analysts said 41-year-old Tsipras, Greece’s youngest premier, was heading for a “tremendous” victory despite a split in Syriza last month that forced new elections. | |
| “It is a tremendous victory for him personally given that his party split and so many MPs left to form their own group after he put his signature to the third bailout agreement,” said the political commentator Aristides Hatzis. | |
| Dissidents in Syriza who remained opposed to the stringent conditions of the EU-backed financial assistance programme should draw lessons from the result, he said. “What this says is that everyone now will have to tow the party line.” | |
| The anti-austerity Popular Unity, formed by the rebels in July, was struggling to cross the 3% threshold to enter parliament, according to the polls. |