Greek voters are heading to the ballot box for the third time this year in the politically volatile and economically frail country.
And once again, the rest of Europe is holding its breath over the outcome.
The main parties in the election Sunday — left-wing Syriza and conservative New Democracy — were neck and neck in opinion polls going into the vote, suggesting neither will win a clear majority in parliament.
Both are committed to reforms Greece has to implement in order to receive more bailout cash promised by European countries. The rescue deal was reached after last-ditch crisis talks in July as the Greek financial system teetered on the brink of collapse and the possibility of the country leaving the eurozone loomed.
Now, an inconclusive election result could mean a delay in forming a coalition, or worse, yet another election. And Greece doesn’t have time for a fresh round of political uncertainty.
‘Greece is not sustainable’
Athens needs a government to tackle its struggling economy, keep the bailout on track and try to deal with the challenge of thousands of migrants arriving on its shores.
Unless a new government gets to work quickly, Greece risks being unable to get more money from Europe. That would leave it unable to pay 3.2 billion euros ($3.8 billion) it owes to the International Monetary Fund later this year.
“Greece is not sustainable and the big issues are how far the program will go off track and how many eurozone members will join Germany in viewing missed targets as no longer a price worth paying,” said Gabriel Sterne, the head of global macro research at Oxford Economics.
The rescue agreed to in July with Europe — worth up to 86 billion euros ($97 billion) — prevented financial collapse and kept Greece in the euro.
New bailout, new elections
It was Syriza’s leader, Alexis Tsipras, who accepted the terms of the new bailout, disappointing many of his left-wing supporters.
Tsipras became Prime Minister after winning elections in January with pledges to get some of Greece’s huge debt burden written off and roll back unpopular austerity measures.
But he was eventually forced to back down as EU leaders refused to budge and the Greek economy sank deeper into the mire.
After having to rely on opposition lawmakers to secure parliamentary approval for the rescue package, Tsipras resigned as Prime Minister last month and called for early elections. He said he wanted the Greek people’s support to take the reform program forward.
His party’s main challenger, New Democracy, argues that it is better qualified to implement the measures called for by the latest bailout.
Whichever party comes out ahead at the ballot box is most likely going to have to find partners with which it can form a coalition.
Economy expected to shrink
Regardless of the result, the IMF says Greece desperately needs “substantial” debt relief. Without it, the country may once again find itself unable to pay its bills in the long term.
Europe has been unwilling to talk about that, saying the first review of Greece’s economic reforms takes precedence.
Meanwhile, Greece’s economy remains in a fragile state after the chaos of the summer.
Capital controls are still in place, its industrial base has shrunk, and unemployment has been hovering around 25%.
“We’ve seen a big drop in economic sentiment; we’ve seen big drops in imports and exports, so there’s likely to be a big slowdown in the economy,” Raoul Ruparel, a director of Open Europe, told CNN.
Greek GDP is expected to shrink by 2.3% this year and by 1.3% next year.
And the disruption brought about by yet another round of voting isn’t helping matters.
“Nothing is happening in the political sphere and that means nothing can happen in reforming the economy,” Ruparel said.