Greece to hold snap election on Sunday

ATHENS

Greece's electorate will head to the polls on Sunday in a snap parliamentary contest six weeks after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' defeat in European Parliament elections in May.

Tsipras requested the dissolution of parliament and snap polls following his left-wing Syriza party’s poor performance in May's European elections, where his party finished second, runner-up to the conservative New Democracy party.

Nearly 10 million registered voters will cast their votes at 21,478 ballot boxes to elect 300 lawmakers for a four-year term.

According to the Constitution, a party must have a nationwide vote tally of at least 3 percent in order to elect members of the parliament.

A total of 20 parties will contest in the election. However, New Democracy party led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis is ahead according to the latest surveys.

Mitsotakis, 51, who is the son of former Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, looks like to form a new government on its own.

Tsipras, who is serving as premier since 2015, faced difficulty after the economic situation in Greece as well as the name agreement with North Macedonia.

While playing main role in the name agreement issue, Tsipras received praise from Western leaders, but faced criticism at home especially from conservative groups in the country.

His party stormed to power in 2015 after Greece buckled under painful economic reforms and austerity measures, forcing it to sign for more than €260 billion in rescue funds from the eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund.