The ballots opened for Greek voters on Sunday for the first national election in the post-bailout era. A total of 21,478 polling stations opened at 7am and will close at 7pm on Sunday evening (Greek time). There are a total of 9,903,864 voters of whom 519,227 are aged 17-21, in the first elections where people aged 17 years have the right to vote in Greece.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cast his ballot for the elections in central Athens. He said: “Greeks are deciding for the course the country will take in the next four years, they are deciding for their lives. I want to appeal to all citizens to vote despite the high temperatures today. I would particularly like to appeal to the young who traditionally make the difference, not to leave a crucial decision on their future to others. I believe this is a crucial battle, we are fighting it with optimism and decisiveness until the last minute so that the sacrifices of our people do not go to waste.”

His main rival, opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis gave a message along similar lines when he went to vote in Peristeri, northwest of Athens. “Greeks are taking their fate in their hands,” he said. “I am confident that a new day will dawn tomorrow.”

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Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos cast his ballot at Neo Psychiko, north of Athens. “Statements are superfluous today,” he said. “This is a day for citizens and their popular verdict.”

Movement for Change leader Fofi Gennimata made a statement to the press when she cast her ballot at Agios Dimitrios. “Reason is returning to Greece, through the people’s vote,” she said. “A vote for KINAL is crucial for the interests of the people and political stability. We are proud of our progressive identity.”

Greek Communist Party (KKE) Secretary General Dimitris Koutsoumbas voted in Haidari, NW Athens. “We vote so we can be stronger tomorrow, to claim our rights, (to claim) the truth in paving the way for a brighter future for ourselves and our children.”

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Yanis Varoufakis, former SYRIZA finance minister and leader of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), urged Greeks to vote on Sunday. “Democracy only belongs to those who have the courage to defend it,” he said. “Today, the only way to defend it is by voting on the basis of the parties’ programs and their record,” he told journalists as he exited the polling station where he voted in the southern Athenian district of Palio Faliro.”

Former leaders also cast their ballots. Former ND prime minister Antonis Samaras said that “we will start rebuilding a Greece of growth, justice and dignity.”

Former socialist PASOK prime minister George Papandreou said, “We vote for hope, for those who do not want to see Greece painted in the blue of  conservatism, but not a country where the left has co-existed with conservatism and even has conservative practices, as it turned out.”