(9 Apr 2000) Natural Sound
Celebrants took to the streets of Athens when polls closed and ballot counting started in Greece's parliamentary elections on Sunday.
Struggling farmers and a vast bloc of undecided voters held the balance in the cliffhanger vote, which could either return the country to the long-governing Socialists or hand power to the conservatives with a politically untested leader.
Moments after the voting closed, exit polls indicated mixed results in the parliamentary race.
Some gave a slight edge to the conservatives; others to the Socialists.
The narrow margin of victory may give the winner just a slim majority in the 300-seat parliament.
That could leave the new government vulnerable to special interests opposing programmes seen as essential to keep pace with European Union partners, such as modernising the education system and selling off state enterprises.
Another worry is how the Socialists could respond if they are pushed out after leading Greece for 16 of the past 19 years.
They boast of spearheading an astonishing economic turnaround that has carried the E-U's poorest nation to the threshold of the bloc's single currency group.
The last time the conservative New Democracy party held power - from 1990-93 - the Socialists used their influence with labour unions to mobilise wave after wave of strikes and protest marches.
The Socialists dominated the last parliament with 160 seats compared with 103 for New Democracy.
Voting is compulsory in Greece, which has 10.2 (m) million people but nearly 9 (m) million voters because of an aging population and Greeks returning from abroad to vote.
Lines formed at some polling stations before dawn.
The unclear exit poll results did not stop party officials from open optimism.
Hundreds of New Democracy supporters poured into the streets in central Athens, setting off flares and burning the green flags of the Socialists, led by Costas Caramanlis.
Caramanlis has tried to deflect criticism of his political inexperience by insisting that fresh ideas were needed.
He also accused the Socialists of arrogantly abandoning rural Greece in the drive to achieve E-U fiscal targets.
That message resonated strongly in the agricultural regions in central and northern Greece - once a mainstay of the Socialist dynasty.
Many farmers complain that state subsidies and other aid have been drying up.
The Socialists also could be hurt by a recent slump in the once-skyrocketing Athens Stock Exchange.
But no major differences separate the two main parties on big issues, including streamlining the public sector and advancing efforts to end friction with longtime rival Turkey.
The overlapping agendas have left legions of voters capable of leaning either way.
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