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An election official arranges ballots for the upcoming general elections at a polling station in Piraeus An election official arranges ballots for the upcoming general elections at a polling station in Piraeus 

Greek centre-right poised to win Sunday's election

Greeks vote on Sunday in a national election that, according to the polls, Greece’s opposition centre-right New Democracy party is heavily favoured to win.

Greece’s leftwing prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, called the snap election just over a month ago, after his Syriza party was hammered in elections for the European Parliament and local governments.  At that time New Democracy was nine points ahead, and there is little indication as we speak that the gap has narrowed.

The New Democracy leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has pledged a more business-friendly administration if he’s elected.  He has promised tax cuts and more efforts to draw in foreign investment, to pull Greece out of a ten-year economic slump.

Mitsotakis’s message has found wide appeal among small business people who have suffered the most from the ongoing crisis, as well as those concerned about rising crime and a lack of police protection.

Tsipras, on the other hand, claims his four-year socialist rule lifted Greece out of tutelage to the European Union and European Central Bank and put the ailing national economy on a sounder footing.

Yet even though Mitsotakis is well ahead, there’s still a question mark over whether he’ll get a governing majority.

Listen to the report by John Carr

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06 July 2019, 17:21