Great victory for ND - More than 20 points difference from SYRIZA

Sunday's national elections in Greece resulted in a sweeping victory for ruling New Democracy and unexpected low results for main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, which lost all but one of 59 electoral regions in Greece.

With 95/50% of the votes counted, the following percentages were recorded, according to the Interior Ministry's live update through its online site (https://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/v/home/en/), with party leaders in parentheses:

• New Democracy (Kyriakos Mitsotakis): 40.78% and 145 seats
• SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance (Alexis Tsipras):  20.07% and 72 seats
• PASOK-KINAL (Nikos Androulakis): 11.53% and 41 seats
• Communist Party of Greece (Dimitris Koutsoubas): 7.20% and 26 seats
• Greek Solution (Kyriakos Velopoulos): 4.46% and 16 seats

Yanis Varoufakis' party MeRA25 with 2.59% did not make the 3% threshold to enter Parliament, along with Niki (Dimitris Natsios, 2.92%) and  Plefsi Eleftherias (Zoi Konstantopoulou, former Parliament speaker, 2.87%).

Voter turnout was 60.73%, parties that did not make it into Parliament account for 15.96% of votes, and invalid or blank votes totaled 2.61%.

Mitsotakis: Voters requested faster reforms under single-party government

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called Sunday's election results "a political earthquake," and promised to work harder on reforms that will bring Greece on par with European standards.

In a statement after New Democracy was shown to have won 58 of 59 electoral districts in Greece, Mitsotakis said that the country needs a strong government that can implement the necessary reforms. "New Democracy has the approval to govern independently and strongly," he said, "which is what voters requested in an emphatic and absolute manner. They asked us to progress faster."

He added that Greek voters recognized the need for a single-party government, which would result in runoff elections a month from now. This, Mitsotakis said, would prevent Greece from getting involved in fruitless negotiations for a coalition government. "Tonight one cycle ends and another one begins, which we will walk on together, with the language of truth and the trust we have built with great effort," he underlined, thanking the voters.

According to results - with 88.12% of the votes counted and a +/- 0.5% margin of error - and under the current electoral law, ND claims 145 seats in a 300-seat Parliament, not enough for a stand-along government.

Tsipras to urgently convene party committees ahead of runoff elections

SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras announced the immediate assembly of all party committees after his party's defeat in Sunday's elections.

Earlier, the main opposition leader conceded to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

In a brief statement, Tsipras said the following: "Winning and losing are both part of any struggle. The electoral result is extremely negative for Syriza. A short while ago I contacted Mr. Mitsotakis to congratulate him on his victory. Our party committees will convene immediately to evaluate the results. The election cycle is not yet over, since there will probably be a runoff, therefore we do not have time to spare. We must immediately make all changes necessary to fight the next critical and final electoral battle in the best possible terms. I want to thank from the bottom of my heart the hundreds of thousands of people who supported us with their votes, and above all Syriza's thousands of members and friends who fought the difficult electoral battle with us."

Androulakis: PASOK-KINAL is New Democracy's 'true and genuine opponent'

Greek voters endorsed the revival of PASOK and the democratic movement, PASOK-Movement for Change (KINAL) leader Nikos Androulakis said on Sunday, following the election results that showed his party gaining in seats.

The socialist party leader also criticized Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis for "an executive state that covered up a deep state of wiretapping and extensive corruption." Androulakis also blamed SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras for New Democracy's sweeping victory instead of "ND paying for all this at the ballot box."

Androulakis underlined that "the Greek people highlighted a huge need for a strong progressive power in Greece that will embrace the real concerns of citizens, that will proceed ahead with progress, responsibility and reliability." The voters who cast their ballot for PASOK-KINAL must not be disappointed, he said, and termed Sunday's result as "the first great step to put an end to divisiveness and toxicity."

Androulakis called on voters to strengthen PASOK-KINAL, "New Democracy's true and genuine opponent."