Polling stations open and first voters vote in Greece election

Greeks began voting at precisely 0700 local time (0400 GMT) in their most critical and unpredictable election in decades, with voters set to punish the two main parties that are being held responsible for the country's dire economic straits.        

Thirty-two parties vie for the votes of nearly 10 million registered voters, many of whom, according to recent polls, were undecided on the eve of the election.        

Abstention, rising in recent opinion surveys, will be crucial to the final outcome.        

In the last national election, in October 2009, just over 70 percent of the registered voters went to the polling station.        

This time, voter disillusion is such that neither the socialist PASOK party nor conservative New Democracy, which have been alternating in power for the last 38 years, can count on enough votes to form a government.       

Days of wrangling over forming a coalition are expected, with the prospect, alarming to Greece's lenders and much of the country's population, of more elections if they fail.       

Public anger has been so high that some politicians have put on low-profile campaigns for fear of physical attacks on the streets in a country battered by business closures and hundreds of thousands of job losses.       

The last opinion polls published before a two-week blackout ahead of the election showed PASOK and New Democracy losing support since the last election in 2009.        

Entirely dependent on billions of euros in international rescue loans from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund, Greece must impose yet more austerity measures next month, to keep the money flowing in and prevent a default and a potentially disastrous exit from the euro.     

For the past six months, New Democracy and PASOK have been in coalition, led by technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, former European Central Bank head.

APTN