Greek elections so far: All you need to know in 400 words

Simple for the parliamentary elections in the country of the European Union.

Millions of Greeks cast their ballots for general elections.

Here’s everything you need to know.

• • Polling stations opened at 07:00 local time (04:00 GMT) and closed at 19:00 (16:00 GMT).
  • A joint exit poll conducted by six polling stations will be published once voting has concluded.
  • A first estimate of the number of votes is expected around 8.30pm (5.30pm GMT).
  • The main issues affecting voters are the economy, jobs and security with neighboring Turkey.
  • Parties must reach the 3 percent threshold to gain access to the 300-seat parliament.
  • New Democracy, a centre-right party led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, scores 31-38 percent.
  • It is followed by Syriza, the main left-wing opposition party led by Alexis Tsipras, trailing by 4-7 percentage points.
  • The election is unlikely to produce an outright winner after a change in the country’s electoral system.
  • A new vote is expected in early July, unless the political parties agree on a coalition. This is generally considered unlikely.
  • According to polls, the country is in fairly strong economic health, with falling unemployment and growth this year expected to be twice that of the European Union.
  • But economic issues remain front and center amid a biting cost-of-living crisis.
  • Mitsotakis, 55, has called on voters not to throw away hard-won economic stability.
  • But Tsipras, 48, accuses New Democracy of practicing trickle-down economics – only driving growth, but not managing the distribution of wealth.

• Should no party win outright, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou will give the leader of the largest party a three-day mandate to form a coalition.
• If this is not possible, the exploratory assignment is transferred to the second party and then to the third party. If the parties fail to agree, the president holds a final meeting with party leaders to form a government or an interim government that calls elections. When they still cannot agree, she appoints a caretaker government to call new elections. A senior judicial official, who is supposed to head one of Greece’s three largest courts, has been named acting prime minister, according to new polls.
• Crucially, in those elections, the system reverts to semi-proportional representation, with a sliding scale for seat bonuses, increasing the likelihood of a party winning outright.
• Under that semi-proportional system, the winning party gets a bonus of 20 seats if it gets at least 25 percent of the vote, and can get up to 50 seats if it gets about 40 percent of the vote.