HispanicBusiness

Under Greek election law, which awards an extra 50 seats to the party with the biggest plurality, New Democracy may be able to form a government with PASOK, to which it was junior partner in an uneasy alliance since November. But it is likely to be a weak coalition and to produce spectacular battles in Parliament - assuming it adheres to its commitments to the EU to raise taxes, fire public workers and reduce wages in exchange for $240 billion in bailouts.

Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy, and Evangelos Venizelos, head of PASOK, called Sunday night for a government of national unity, bringing in all parties that want to preserve the euro as Greece's currency.

"We are ready to undertake the responsibility of creating a government of national salvation, with two goals: staying in the eurozone and altering the policies of the (bailout agreement) so that we can have development and easing the burden on society," Samaras said. "I understand the wrath of the people, but we will not leave Greece without a government."

Former New Democracy member Panos Kammenos said his breakaway Independent Greeks party, which won about 10.4 percent of the vote Sunday, was willing to form a government of national unity, but only if Syriza will join. But Syriza leader Aleksis Tsipras said his priority is to lead a government of the left that would reverse the course of the EU bailouts.

Voting in Greece is mandatory, but voters stayed home - or at the beach-in far larger numbers than in 2009, with turnout only at 60 percent, down 10 percentage points from 2009. Voters said they had a very tough time deciding between major parties that most felt were responsible for the crisis in the first place and smaller, untried parties that were unlikely to be able to fulfill any of their promises.

"The two big parties are not reliable. That is why I voted for a smaller party that I didn't support before," said Katarina Zafiriadou, 35, a cosmetician, who voted for Syriza. "I don't know if it's good or bad. I wanted to try something different." She said she previously voted for New Democracy.

What annoyed Zafiriadou was not that Samaras supported the bailout conditions, but "that he was adamant five days before he changed his mind that he wouldn't change his mind."

Panayiota Zoi, 19, a psychology student at a private college in Athens, voted blind Sunday. After removing the ballot papers of the parties in the current Parliament, she closed her eyes and picked one of the remaining two dozen parties running.

"I am sure she didn't vote for the parties that (destroyed) the country," said her boyfriend, Anastasios Patelis, who used a vulgar word instead of destroyed. Patelis, 23, also a psychology student, said he didn't vote because he is from Corfu and would have had to pay his way home and back.

Constantinos Apostilakis, 39, a computer salesman who was with his wife and 4-year-old son at the same beach, said he voted for a pro-business party called Drasi, headed by Stefanos Manos, a former finance minister. '"I don't know if they will get 3 percent, but he has very good ideas," he said. His wife, Fotini, 34, an accountant, said she hadn't yet voted but would choose between Syriza and the Communists.

They both agreed that Greece is unlikely to see any results anytime soon, but that their son, coincidentally named Manos, might. "The current program is a dead end," said Constantinos Apostilakis. "When Manos grows up, in 20 years, the country will be out of recession. The young guys who are in their 20s now - they are going to have a serious problem."