Tsipras became Prime Minister after winning elections in January with pledges to get some of Greece’s huge debt burden written off and roll back unpopular austerity measures.
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Multiple trips to the ballot box and disappointment at being rebuffed by Europe, however, have sapped the energy of many Greeks for this election – which has been relatively low key. That would occur if no parties manage to agree on forming a coalition government if the victor doesn’t have enough of a majority to govern alone.
A total of nine parties could win seats in parliament in this vote, including the Nazi-inspired ultra-right Golden Dawn party that finished third in the previous election and is still polling high.
The 41-year-old Tsipras stepped down in August and called new elections after seven months of tense negotiations with creditors over a European Union bailout plan for Greece.
Greeks voted in a parliamentary election in January, propelling Tsipras into power, and then again in July in a referendum on whether to accept a new bailout from worldwide lenders along with more austerity.
“Greece is not sustainable and the big issues are how far the program will go off track and how many eurozone members will join Germany in viewing missed targets as no longer a price worth paying”, said Gabriel Sterne, the head of global macro research at Oxford Economics.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras’s popularity plummeted after he agreed to a new bailout deal with European leaders.
An old-school conservative thrust into the limelight after his predecessor Antonis Samaras resigned the leadership of the New Democracy party, tough-talking lawyer Meimarakis has spent 41 of his 61 years in party politics.
Alexis Tsipras’s party is running for re-election on a more pragmatic platform than last time.
He painted Mr Tsipras as a reckless, inexperienced politician who led the country toward a potential catastrophe and introduced strict banking restrictions in an effort to stem a bank run. They speak with their vote.
“Voters want to send away… the lies, the misery, the posers and bring truth and real people”, Meimarakis told supporters on Sunday.
The campaign’s surprise candidate, Leventis is a curmudgeonly 63-year-old who has spent the last 25 years on a late-night TV station, railing against the corruption of Greek politics and being bombarded with prank calls.
Creditors are expected to review progress of reforms as part of the bailout next month, while the government will also have to draft the 2016 state budget, overhaul the pension system, raise a series of taxes, including on farmers, carry out privatisations and merge social security funds.
Neither political party is likely to win the 151 seats needed to rule alone in the 300-seat parliament.
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If a large chunk of the 10 to 15 percent of “undecided” voters – who analysts say are mainly former Syriza voters – refuse to give the party a second chance, a majority for the anti-austerity party will be out of reach.
