ATHENS, Jan 25
(Reuters) - Greece's leftwing Syriza looked set for a comfortable victory over
the ruling conservatives, an exit poll showed, with a chance of winning a full
majority to face down international creditors and roll back years of painful
austerity measures.
If confirmed, the
result would be enough to install 40-year-old Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras as
prime minister at the head of the first euro zone government openly opposed to
bailout conditions imposed by European Union and International Monetary Fund
during the economic crisis.
The poll showed Syriza
could have between 146-158 seats in the 300-seat parliament, with the final
result heavily dependent on whether former Prime Minister George Papandreou's
centre-left Movement of Democratic Socialists enters parliament.
A clearer indication
will come after 9.30 p.m. local time (1930 GMT) when the interior ministry is
due to issue first official projections, with a breakdown of seats based on a
partial count of the vote.
"It is a historic
victory, we still have to see if it will be a big historic victory,"
Syriza spokesman Panos Skourletis told Greece's Mega TV. "It sends a
message against austerity and in favour of dignity and democracy," he
said.
Financial markets have
been worried a Syriza victory will trigger a new financial crisis in Greece,
but the repercussions for the euro zone are expected to be far smaller than
feared the last time Greeks went to the polls in 2012.
A final result could
come in the early hours of Monday but after one of the shortest campaigns in
recent Greek history, voters appear to have rejected the austerity medicine
prescribed during a crisis which has threatened almost 4 million Greeks or a
quarter of the population with poverty.
As the biggest party
in the 300-seat parliament, Syriza would gain an automatic premium of 50 seats
but under Greece's complicated election rules, the number of votes it needs for
an absolute majority depends on how the overall vote is split up.
The exit poll showed
the centrist To Potami (The River) and the far-right Golden Dawn party tied in
third place with seven or eight parties, set to enter parliament.
If it ends up short of
an absolute majority, Tsipras will have to try to form a coalition with smaller
parties or reach an agreement that would allow Syriza to form a minority
government with ad-hoc support from others in parliament.
