Left-wing SYRIZA party has won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s early elections which will give former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras the opportunity to renew his alliance with Independent Greeks and form a coalition government, ekathimerini.com reported.

With 70% of the votes counted, SYRIZA had 35.43%, which would translate into 144 seats in Parliament.

Conservative New Democracy followed second with 28.29%, proving wrong pre-election opinion polls that suggested it would challenge SYRIZA for the first spot.

With Independent Greeks (ANEL) having won 3.65% of the vote, Tsipras could again form an alliance between them and SYRIZA that is expected to have 154 out of the 300 seats in Parliament. ANEL leader Panos Kammenos has already announced the party will join hands with Tsipras again.

Right-wing Golden Dawn was third with just over 7%, followed by PASOK with 6.38% and the Communist Party with 5.47. To Potami had 4%, and the Union of Centrists 3.38%.

Popular Unity, a splinter group formed by SYRIZA rebels in protest against the terms of a bailout agreement with international creditors signed by Tsipras government, had won 2.84% of the vote, just short of the 3% threshold.

Addressing a rally in central Athens, Tsipras said he felt “vindicated” as Greeks had given him a mandate to “keep fighting inside and outside the country.” He referred to a “crystal-clear mandate” to purge the Greek system of “vulgarity and corruption,” according to ekathimerini.com.

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