Sawt Falasteen - Mitsotakis on course to return as Greek PM in new vote

Polls show that Mitsotakis' New Democracy party is in line to be the clear winner, with between 40 and 43.9 percent of the vote.

Mitsotakis, 55, last month cruised to victory with a score of 40.79 percent, more than 20 points ahead of his nearest rival, former leftist prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

But he fell short of a workable parliamentary majority and declined to form a coalition government.

A Pulse poll for private Skai TV last week said nine out of 10 New Democracy voters would vote conservative again on Sunday.

Mitsotakis says that under his stewardship, Greeks paid lower taxes and the country became a success story attractive to investors, posting growth above the European average and returning tourism revenue to nearly pre-pandemic levels.

- 'Growth will continue' -

"I promise Greeks that (economic) growth will continue," he told Skai TV last week.

"We are more experienced, more prepared and more determined."

Mitsotakis' critics counter that he showered billions of euros on political allies and friendly media, tried to bury a major wiretapping scandal and attempted to dodge responsibility for Greece's worst train disaster in February.

This time, Harvard graduate and former McKinsey financial consultant Mitsotakis faces a challenge on his right that could determine the size of his parliamentary group.

A new hard-right party, Niki, narrowly missed out on parliamentary seats in May and is now polling over the required 3 percent threshold, as is the established nationalist party Greek Solution.

Another new party, Plefsi Eleftherias, headed by hard leftist former parliament speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou is also likely to clinch parliamentary representation.

And former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis also seeks election under the radical left MeRa25 party.

If eight parties succeed in entering parliament on Sunday, the winner will need a higher percentage of the vote to maximise their parliamentary group in the 300-seat chamber.

Mitsotakis has been criticised for warning that a third election could be held in August, at the height of the busy tourism season, if a government cannot be formed after Sunday.

- A final vote? -

Last month, the former PM blamed deep policy differences with his closest rivals, leftist leader Alexis Tsipras and socialist head Nikos Androulakis, for his refusal to form a coalition government after May's ballot.

And he has declined to cooperate with any hard-right party.

The upcoming election is held under new rules that give the winner a bonus of up to 50 seats, facilitating efforts to form a single-party government.

The vote will be conducted in the shadow of a migrant boat disaster on June 14 that claimed 78 lives, with hundreds more feared missing and unlikely to be found.

But the tragedy, which has been declared Greece's worst maritime accident, is not expected to heavily influence the election result.

The election could also spell the end of Tsipras' 15-year control of the leftist Syriza party, as he has already lost five electoral contests to Mitsotakis.

The son of a prime minister and uncle of the current mayor of Athens, Mitsotakis also touts his administration's defence spending and a tough policy on migration.

After the May 21 ballot, he boasted that all but one of the country's 59 electoral regions had "turned blue", the colour of the New Democracy party.

He then vowed to wrest the last remaining region, Rodopi, from Syriza.

But the ex-PM raised eyebrows by claiming that it was interference from historic rival Turkey among the area's Greek Muslim minority that had helped Syriza secure the region.

"There was very strong interference from the Turkish consulate in favour of specific (Syriza) candidates... with (SMS) messages that said 'Turks support Turks'," he told Skai TV last week.

N.AbuHussein--SF-PST