article: The polls are currently neck-and-neck between the left-wing Syriza, led by former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and the right-wing New Democracy, led by Vangelis Meimarakis. The vote was called by Mr Tsipras last month in an attempt to give him a popular mandate following his controversial agreement with European creditors in exchange for a vital third bailout package. However, with any future Greek government now committed to those agreed austerity measures, the main feature of this election is indifference and confusion among the electorate. The elections are also taking place in a climate of economic malaise, with the economy having suffered substantially in the first half of 2015 due to political uncertainty and consumer anticipation of further austerity. This election, organised by a caretaker government, will take place under a closed-list system, meaning individual candidates do not campaign, since the order of preference in constituency lists is determined by party leaders. Under Greek electoral law, 250 of the 300 seats in parliament are allocated, according to proportional representation, to each party that clears a 3% threshold, with the winning party receiving a 50-seat bonus. If all parties running were to clear the threshold, a vote share of about 40% would be needed to gain an outright majority (151 seats). But the share needed for a majority drops according to how many parties fail to enter parliament. Based on previous Greek elections, it is expected that about 10% of votes will go to parties that remain outside parliament, reducing the majority vote share to about 36%. It seems very unlikely that any of the two major parties will manage to cross this threshold. Polls close at 19:00 local time (17:00 BST), after which all major Greek TV stations will broadcast their exit polls. Unless results are very close, it will be safe to gauge the critical aspects of the result (which party comes first, which parties enter parliament, distribution of seats) by about 22:00 local time. When the elections were called, a Syriza majority was not out of the question. However, the party suffered a split following its pro-austerity turn, giving rise to a new anti-austerity party - the Popular Unity (LAE) - which competes with the Communist Party (KKE) for the vote to the left of Syriza. Mr Tsipras, the dominant figure in Greek politics since he came to power, has been tarnished by disagreements with his old comrades, making a further split in his party a possibility after the election. The pro-European centre-left is less fragmented than in recent years, as the party of former Prime Minister George Papandreou will not contest these elections. This leaves PASOK and To Potami as the sole representatives of this camp. The right wing of the political spectrum includes: New Democracy has conducted a much more enthusiastic campaign than many expected and is benefiting from the down-to-earth style of its interim leader, Vangelis Meimarakis. Opinion polls paint an image of a neck-and-neck race. However, most voters who have not declared their intention yet are old Syriza voters and it would be a major surprise were
summary: The Greek election on 20 September will be the third vote in 2015 (after the general election of January and the referendum in July) and the fifth general election in six years.