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| Conservatives 'lead Greek vote' | Conservatives 'lead Greek vote' |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Exit polls in Greece's general election suggest the centre-right party of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis is set to defeat its socialist rival. | Exit polls in Greece's general election suggest the centre-right party of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis is set to defeat its socialist rival. |
| The exit polls indicate Mr Karamanlis' New Democracy party will win about 42% of the vote, against about 38% for the Pasok party led by George Papandreou. | The exit polls indicate Mr Karamanlis' New Democracy party will win about 42% of the vote, against about 38% for the Pasok party led by George Papandreou. |
| If confirmed, the results would give New Democracy an absolute majority in the 300-seat parliament. | |
| The vote was overshadowed by forest fires that killed dozens in August. | |
| Mr Karamanlis had been expected to triumph in the poll, after calling elections six months before the end of his term of office. | |
| But his support fell when many Greeks felt the government was slow to react to the fires. | |
| The Papandreou and Karamanlis families have dominated the Greek political scene for most of the past 50 years. | |
| However smaller parties have been gaining support in the run-up to the election. | |
| The far-right Laos party is expected to cross the 3% threshold needed to gain seats in parliament for the first time. |