GREECE: GREEKS LOOK SET FOR CHANGE AS ELECTION POLLS SHOW CONSERVATIVES NEW DEMOCRACY PARTY HEADING FOR VICTORY OVER RULING SOCIALISTS

Record ID: 863230

  • Title: GREECE: GREEKS LOOK SET FOR CHANGE AS ELECTION POLLS SHOW CONSERVATIVES NEW DEMOCRACY PARTY HEADING FOR VICTORY OVER RULING SOCIALISTS
  • Date: 9th April 2000
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (APRIL 9) (REUTERS) POLLING STATION CLOSES MV/CU/MV: BALLOT BOXES OPENED (3 SHOTS) SV: VOTES COUNTED MV: COUNTING BV: NEW DEMOCRACY PARTY SUPPORTERS GATHERED AT CAMPAIGN BOOTHS AND WAVING FLAGS AND CHEERING AS THEY WATCH AN EXIT POLL ON TELEVISION SCREEN (3 SHOTS) VARIOUS: NEW DEMOCRACY SUPPORTERS WAVING FLARES, HONKING HORNS, CHEERING WATCHING RESULTS (10 SHOTS) MV: ELECTION PRESS CENTRE, LOCAL AND FOREIGN JOURNALISTS WATCHING RESULTS/JOURNALISTS WATCHING AN EXIT POLL CONDUCTED BY NATIONAL BROADCASTER ERT THAT GIVES RULING PASOK PARTY IN FRONT, ONE OF THE ONLY BROADCASTERS THAT GIVES PASOK IN FRONT (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 24th April 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ATHENS, GREECE
  • City:
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC9GKUPXZOOEIXLOM7LXOYPE2L
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Greeks looked set for change as exit polls from a hard-fought election show the conservative New Democracy party heading for victory over the ruling socialists.
    Crowds of chanting New Democracy supporters gathered in central Athens late on Sunday (April 9), waving blue flags, cheering, honking car horns and lighting flares.
    Only a handful of silent supporters gathered outside the socialists' headquarters.
    No official nationwide results had been released but, after voting ended, most exit polls showed New Democracy leading the PASOK socialist party of Prime Minister Costas Simitis.
    While some showed only the slightest difference, others gave the conservatives as much as a 1.3 percent lead.
    PASOK officials said it was too early to call the election but appeared resigned to losing.
    In Greece's election system, the party which gets the largest percentage of the vote -- no matter how small a margin -- is all but guaranteed an absolute majority of seats in the new parliament.
    If the results hold up, Greece's new prime minister will be Costas Karamanlis, nephew of the former prime minister and president Constantine Karamanlis.
    Karamanlis, 43, has pledged to tackle Greece's domestic ills, notably unemployment, poor healthcare, under-funded schools and lagging rural life.
    He also has said he would try to speed up privatisations and market liberalisation.
    PASOK has been in power since a landslide victory in 1981, except for a break between 1990 and 1993.Many voters appeared tired of the same faces and told pollsters the party had become arrogant.
    Simitis, a centrist technocrat, campaigned on his experience and successes -- an economy good enough to join EMU, rapprochement with arch-rival Turkey and improvements in relations with Greece's partners in the European Union and NATO.
    Under his care, Greece's economy has shed large public deficits and double-digit inflation and marched to the brink of joining the euro zone.
    Karamanlis, who has never served as a minister in a government, offered new blood.
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