smaller lead over PASOK at around 2%. The goal of a workable parliamentary majority hung in the brink, with some pollsters projecting 147–149 and some 151–153 seats for the leading party. The law traditionally requires that voting begins at "sunrise" and ends at "sunset". In practice this is rounded up to the nearest top of the hour. Voting began at 7 am and concluded at 7 pm. 7 pm was also the time when media outlets publicized their exit polls and issued their predictions. According to SingularLogic, the information technology contractor of the Ministry of the Interior, initial returns would not reach statistical significance before 11 pm and firm estimates might not emerge until after midnight. Voting took place in 20,623 polling stations – mostly schools – throughout the country, each of which catered to 400–500 voters on average. Opinion polls A collection of opinion polls taken before the elections is listed below. According to a law, which was voted by the Greek parliament, publication of opinion polls is forbidden in the fortnight prior to the election date. Therefore, the last day when opinion polls were published was September 1, 2007, and practically all opinion polling firms published their final public reports on August 31, 2007, in time for the evening news. Exit polls The Greek media outlets issued their exit polls at 19:00 local time. Results By region Aftermath At 01:00 on 17 September 2007 PASOK leader George Papandreou conceded defeat and Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis thanked the electorate for granting him and his party a renewed term in office. Papandreou also stated that he will seek his party's direct reaffirmation in his leadership, and Evangelos Venizelos, PASOK's informal #2, declared himself "present" in this process. Papandreou went on and retained his leadership. See also List of members of the Hellenic Parliament, 2007–2009 Notes References Further reading Dinas, Elias (2008) 'Greek general election of 2007: you cannot lose if your opponent cannot win,' West European Politics 31: 600–607. Gemenis, Kostas (2008) 'The 2007 Parliamentary Election in Greece,' Mediterranean Politics 13: 95–101. Gemenis, Kostas (2009) 'A Green comeback in Greece? The Ecologist Greens in the 2007 parliamentary election,' Environmental Politics 18: 128–134. Karamichas, John (2007) 'The impact of the summer 2007 forest fires in Greece: recent environmental mobilizations, cyber-activism and electoral performance,' South European Society and Politics 12: 521–33. External links Ta Nea/Athens News election website Parliamentary elections in Greece