FIRST GREEK ELECTION EXIT POLL SHOW SYRIZA AHEAD

The first official exit poll in Greek election has been released showing the anti-austerity Syriza party on track to get between 35.5%-39.5% of the national vote.

The party looks to be comfortably ahead of the centre-right New Democracy party, which the poll suggested was on track to gain between 23%-27%.

Although the exit polls have proven a relatively unreliable predictor of the eventual result in recent years, they will at least provide the first indication of whether Syriza has succeeded in bringing its poll lead to bear at the voting booth. With the share suggested by the exit poll Syriza still have a chance of winning an overall majority.

Whether they achieve that feat will now depend heavily on how many of the smaller parties reach the 3% threshold needed to get representation in parliament. Yet even if they fall short, winning the largest share of a single party would cap the remarkable rise for a party that was only formed in 2004 as a loose coalition of leftist parties and groups.

The table below shows the percentage of the vote needed for any single party to gain an overall majority in the Greek parliament: