Greeks vote once more in crunch elections

"I am optimistic," Mr Tsipras said after voting in his working class Kypseli neighbourhood of Athens. "Tomorrow a new day starts."

After casting his ballot, To Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis urged Greeks not to abstain, and said the prospect of a repeat election must be avoided. That would occur if no parties manage to agree on forming a coalition government if the winner doesn’t have enough of a majority to govern alone.

But the polls indicated the winner would not have enough votes to form a government alone.

Mr Tsipras, 41, triggered the election by resigning barely seven months into his four-year term, after facing a rebellion within Syriza over his policy U-turn in accepting the spending cuts and tax hikes stipulated by the bailout.

He had won January elections on pledges of abolishing such measures, tied to Greece’s first two bailouts.

He has argued he had no choice but to accept the demands of European creditors for more tax hikes and spending cuts in return for Greece’s third rescue, a three-year package worth €86bn.

He had vowed to repeal the measures imposed in return for the country’s first two bailouts – and despite winning a referendum he hastily called on July 5 urging Greeks to reject creditor reform proposals.

But without the third bailout, Greece – which has relied on international rescue loans since 2010 – faced bankruptcy and a potentially disastrous exit from Europe’s joint currency.

The campaign has been lacklustre and somewhat muted – a far cry from the frenetic, high-stakes January campaign.

That pitted the anti-bailout Mr Tsipras against centrist parties that argued the deal with other Eurozone countries was the country’s best chance for an eventual return to some form of economic normalcy in a country ravaged by recession and with unemployment at around 25%.

Now, the policies for whichever party wins have already been set in the form of the bailout agreement.

The campaign of Mr Tsipras’ main rival, New Democracy’s 61-year-old Vangelis Meimarakis, has centred on a return to stability.

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.

After casting his ballot in a northern Athens suburb, Meimarakis said: "Today the politicians don't speak, the citizens speak. They speak with their vote.

"And I think they want to do away with the grey, the lies, the misery .... And with their vote they want to bring truth and authenticity, so we can have a better tomorrow, a better tomorrow for all Greeks."

Syriza’s campaign has focused on doing away with the staid and often corrupt politics of the past. The government that emerges will have little time to waste.

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.

Polls have indicated no party is anywhere near the levels needed for an overall parliamentary majority of 151 seats in the 300-member legislature, even with the 50-seat bonus given to the winner, and a three-party coalition would probably be required.

That should be achievable with help from two centrist pro-European small parties, the formerly mighty socialist PASOK, and relative newcomer To Potami, or The River.

The Nazi-inspired extreme-right Golden Dawn party has been consistently polling in third place, but would not be approached by any of the other parties to form a coalition.

A total of nine parties have a chance of reaching the 3% threshold needed to enter parliament.