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Tsipras’s Syriza party was ahead with 35 percent followed by the conservative New Democracy at 28 percent, early official results showed. Opinion polls had pointed to a much closer race between Tsipras and New Democracy leader Vangelis Meimarakis, who conceded defeat.

Tsipras supporters startedgatheringat a victoryrally in central Athens, wavingredandpurplepartyflags, while close TsiprasallyNikosFilissaidtheresultpointedto “a victory for theleft in difficulttimes.”

Syriza’s share of the vote fell short of an outright majority of 151 seats in the 300-seat parliament, however. The partial results gave it 145 seats, which means it will have to forge another coalition government.

The most likely coalition parties for Syriza are their former partners, the right-wing Independent Greeks. Partial results put them at 3.7 percent of the vote, which would mean 10 seats in the legislature.

In third place with 7 percent, with almost one-third of votes counted, was the far-right, anti-immigration party Golden Dawn.

Political analysts say the new government will have little room to maneuver on policy due to the demands creditors laid out in the debt-stricken nation’s €86 billion bailout, which Tsipras signed in July in a sharp U-turn that dismayed many supporters.

Tsipras, 41, resigned just seven months into his term to thwart a revolt by left-wing Syriza lawmakers over the rescue programe that stripped him of his parliamentary majority.

Elected in January on pledges to roll back bailout-linked austerity, he was forced to rely on support from pro-European parties including New Democracy to pass the three-year program.

For the people who swept the charismatic Tsipras to power on a wave of hope, his failure to wring a better bailout deal out of Greece’s international creditors was a bitter disappointment and his approval ratings plunged.

During the campaign, he urged voters to give him more time to make a difference, a message that struck a chord with many.

“He had very little time. I think we need to give him another chance,” said Maria, 67, a pensioner, after casting her ballot in the Athens district of Ano Patisia. “It wasn’t good the agreement with the creditors but he had no other choice.”

http://www.politico.eu/