REUTERS/Yannis BehrakisSnap elections could have a huge impact on Europe if Syriza come to power.At about 11 a.m. GMT, Greece's parliament will vote on the government's presidential candidate. If the vote doesn't pass, it's expected that snap nationwide elections will be announced today, with the potential for fresh market chaos.
This is the third and final round of voting by Greek politicians: The government needs a super-majority to avoid the sudden elections. That means getting 180 MPs to approve Stavros Dimas, the candidate. The governing coalition has 155 MPs, and it persuaded another 13 to back Dimas in the last round. But it needs another 12 today.
The analysts at Macropolis reckon that's now unlikely to happen, with "little progress" made since the last round, which was held just before Christmas. There are three independent MPs who could back the government, but that would still leave them well short of 180 votes.
Stocks are down 7.31% in Athens as of 9.20 a.m. GMT, with far-left Syriza likely to win a snap election. Since the presidential vote was announced in the first week of December, the Athens Stock Exchange has tumbled 24.5%
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Syriza isn't likely to be able to form a government on its own, but the highly unorthodox programme it promotes suggests rolling back many of the reforms in recent years and scrapping bailout agreements with Greece's international lenders. It could be the first instance of a eurozone government which simply refuses to co-operate with the currency union's institutions.
Expect more market impact if the government doesn't manage to get the votes. There's also the potential for a bit of a rally if they do. If they're called, elections would come at the end of January or the beginning of February.