Greek voters voted against the two parties that have dominated politics for decades. With more than 83 percent of the vote counted, Greece appeared to be heading toward political stalemate.

Nobody won enough votes to form a government, and the two parties that backed the bailout - the conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK - conceded they need to win over adversaries to form a viable coalition.

New Democracy was leading with nearly 20 percent of the vote, which would give it 110 seats in the 300-member parliament. PASOK saw its support slashed to about 13.5 percent. It will have just 41 seats, compared to 160 in the last election.

The two parties saw their support plummet to the lowest level since 1974, when Greece emerged from a seven-year dictatorship. The outcome showed widespread public anger at the harsh austerity measures imposed over the past two years in return for rescue loans from other European Union countries and the International Monetary Fund.

Without the funds, Greece faced a disastrous default that could have dragged down other financially troubled European countries and seen it leave the euro.

Voters who deserted the two mainstays of Greek politics in droves headed to a cluster of smaller parties on both the left and right, including the Golden Dawn, which rejects the neo-Nazi label and insists it is nationalist patriotic. The party looked set to win about 7 percent of the vote, giving it 21 deputies in parliament - a stunning rise for a group that earned just 0.29 percent of the vote in 2009.

Sunday's other big winner was Alexis Tsipras, the 38-year-old leader of the Radical Left Coalition, or Syriza, who saw his party poised for an unprecedented second place with 16.4 percent and 51 seats - the first time in nearly 40 years that any party other than New Democracy or PASOK has held the spot.

Abstention at record 40%, according to ministry estimate

The abstention rate during Sunday's general elections in Greece was close to a record-breaking 40 percent, according to estimates unveiled by the interior ministry.

This is higher than in the three previous elections, with abstention recorded at 30 percent in 2009, 26 percent in 2007 and 24 percent in 2004.

Samaras: “Greece will not be left ungoverned”

New Democracy (ND) party leader Antonis Samaras on Sunday evening tabled a proposal, under two conditions, following the announcement of partial results of a general election held in the country the same day.

The first condition, Samaras said, is for Greece to remain in the Eurozone and the second is the changing of the Memorandum's (bailout package) policies, "so as to have growth and relief for Greek society."

Samaras said the policies implemented previously by PASOK have reached their limits as regards Greek society's endurance, charging that such policies did not include measures for growth, which he had repeatedly proposed, both in Greece and in Europe.

"New Democracy party is emerging as the first party, something that increases its responsibilities, I understand the people's rage, but our party will not leave Greece ungoverned," Samaras added.

Venizelos: PASOK to call for nat'l unity gov't

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos, speaking after initial results showed his party struggling between second and third place (roughly 15 percent), said PASOK will propose a "national unity" government, as foreseen in the constitution.

"All of the forces with pro-European direction should participate in such a government in order to have political legitimacy and acceptance abroad," as he said, adding that with the results of the May 6 poll preclude a government of the "old two-party system".

According to party spokeswoman Fofi Gennimata, PASOK will await statements by other parties, particularly leftist SYRIZA.

Tsipras: Voters deal crushing defeat to austerity policies

The election result in Greece was a strong message of radical change in both Greece and Europe, a message of "peaceful revolution" showing that the people of Europe could not settle for "barbarous memorandums" and bailouts, Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) leader Alexis Tsipras said late on Sunday, after elections results showed SYRIZA in second place.

He stressed that the parties that had supported the policies of the memorandum were now a minority, who would only be able to scrape together a marginal majority in Parliament because of a skewed election law that distorted the people's will and the election outcome.

Tsipras said that Europe's leadership, especially that of Germany, had to understand that the result was a crushing defeat for austerity policies, with the Greek people "giving their mandate for a new day in our country, without memorandum of barbarous measures but with solidarity and justice in a path out of the crisis that will in any case be difficult".

He also stressed that voters proved through the ballot box that the path out of the crisis did not pass through bailouts and austerity.

He said that SYRIZA understood that its meteoric rise in this election did not reward a party or particular person but a proposal for a leftist government that would arrest the course of austerity policies and bailouts and promised that SYRIZA would do everything in its power to bring about a government that would terminate the Memorandum and loan agreements.

Tsipras said his party would immediately seek to reach an understanding with forces on the political left, initially, so as to exhaust all possibility for "developments in a progressive direction".

KKE's Papariga again rules out cooperation with SYRIZA

The election results signalled the end of the two-party system, with New Democracy and PASOK alternating in power, and ushered in a transitional phase during which there would be an attempt to create a new political scene with new parties, Communist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Aleka Papariga said on the night of the elections held in Greece on Sunday.

She warned that there would be an attempt to pre-empt the rising popular radicalism that will lead to a true reversal benefiting the people, either through new figures of a centre-right direction or a new social democracy centred on SYRIZA, with some form of coalition government arising to stop a majority trend for change to emerge.

Papariga called on members of her party but also working class voters to join in KKE's struggle in workplaces, neighbourhoods and places of learning and not be taken in by the "disguising" of the political system that would be attempted over the next months.

KKE's general secretary also noted that the election result was encouraging in that it showed that the movement for real overthrow was "maturing" in the consciousness of the popular classes and that this movement would not be far from KKE's political proposal.

Replying to a proposal made by SYRIZA for an attempt to cooperate to form a leftist government, Papariga made it clear that she would stick to her position before the elections and refuse to cooperate in this attempt, refusing to compromise KKE's positions and carry out the radical shift this would entail.

Golden Dawn - Chryssi Avgi : “Time for those who betray Greece to be afraid” "Veni, vidi, vici. I was smeared, slandered, gagged, I beat them," the head of the extreme far-right Golden Dawn - Chryssi Avgi party, Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, said on Sunday, commenting on the results of exit polls forecasting that his party will enter Parliament with roughtly 8 percent of the vote.

"It is time for those that betray [Greece] to be afraid. We are coming. We are Greeks, nationalists and we will allow no one to doubt this," he said in a triumphant message. amna

Mihaloliakos attacked New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras as someone that had repeatedly slandered Golden Dawn and accused him of having already made a u-turn on the issue of forming a coalition government and holding repeat elections.

Members of the up-until-recently fringe party were gathering outside its headquarters in Athens and are waiting for the announcement of the official results. www.amna.gr

Independent Greeks party rules out cooperation with 'memorandum' parties

The head of the Independent Greeks party, Panos Kammenos, ruled out cooperation with either PASOK or New Democracy, the two parties that put their signature to the Memorandum and austerity measures, in statements after the results of Sunday's general elections in Greece showed his party entering Parliament with roughly 10 percent of the vote.

Kammenos insisted that he would table his party's policy platform in Parliament and leave it up to individual MPs to decide whether they wanted to support it, including individual MPs from PASOK and ND that disagreed with their party's leadership.

Similarly, he said he was not prepared to participate in any "special purpose government" serving bankers and the past but was willing to take part in a "national purpose government.

On the prospect of cooperating with the left-wing Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), which looked set to come second in the elections, Kammenos noted that he had the same positions as SYRIZA on economic issues but differed on issues of foreign policy, illegal migration and relations with Turkey.