Greece held its general elections on May 21st, a few weeks before the 300-seat Hellenic Parliament was set to be dissolved.
While voters will choose from over 30 parties, the race highlighted the ruling New Democracy party (ND), headed by prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the main opposition Syriza party, headed by former prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
As of the close of voting centers at 19:00 Greek time (16:00 UTC), Mitsotakis's ND party is leading the polls with 36% to 40% of the vote to Syriza's 25% to 29%.
However, recent changes to the Greek electoral system would mean having a clear winner during the first round of voting is highly unlikely.
According to political analyst Panos Koliastasis, changes in the voting rules mean the leading party must win over 45% of the electorate to create a single-party government. If they fail to do so, they have nine days to form a coalition with one or multiple parties.
In the event of a no clear majority after nine days, Greeks will return to the polls by late June or early July.
Mitsotakis leads the polls, Tsipras's return as PM unlikely
Mitsotakis's government has been plagued with several issues, including the Tempi train crash in February and a wiretapping scandal targeted at socialist PASOK party leader Nikos Androulakis.
After casting his vote, Mitsotakis urged his countrymen to vote for "a stronger country with an important role in Europe and protected borders."
Despite this, the ND party retains the lead and has to create a coalition if it wants to stay in power.
The election campaign of opposition leader Alexis Tsipras and his left-wing Syriza party has been focused on taking Mitsotakis's government to account regarding the Tempi train crash, which killed 57 people, and the Androulakis wiretapping incident.
With early projections showing ND's dominance in this year's elections, Syriza is projected to occupy the opposition bench for another term.
Young voters favoring smaller parties
Meanwhile, there is an emerging trend among younger Greeks to vote for smaller parties out of dissatisfaction with the larger parties.
One of the parties that contested in this year's election is MeRA25, headed by former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who left Syriza in the aftermath of the 2015 Greek bailout referendum.
According to independent political thinktank MacroPolis co-founder Nick Malkoutzis, younger voters call for greater accountability and transparency as a result of their disappointment with politicians, regardless of who is the ruling party.
"Young people have very little faith in the major parties and mainstream politics," he said. "This pushes them toward the outer fringes of the political system."
Cost of living remains a key issue
Aside from political scandals and transport safety woes, Greeks remain distressed by the cost of living in the country as a result of its debt crisis in 2015 and the three-year bailout program that followed it. Parties have campaigned to convince voters of the promises of increasing the minimum wage and creating jobs.
Whoever wins this year's election has to do more to increase the country's GDP while, at the same time, minimizing the need to raise taxes.
