UPDATED WITH LATEST DATA, ADDED PRIME MINISTER'S REMARK, REVISES DECK
By Ahmet Gencturk
ATHENS (AA) - Greece’s ruling liberal-conservative New Democracy (ND) party leads the European Parliament elections with 27.88%, which indicates a major decline from its nearly 40.8% in last year’s general elections.
With over 94% of the vote counted, ND is followed by the main opposition leftist SYRIZA with 14.93% in the elections whose turnout rate was only 40.68%, according to data from the Interior Ministry.
Social democratic PASOK became the third largest party with 12.89%, followed by the far-right Greek Solution party with 9.52%.
While the Greek Communist Party (KKE) came in fifth with 9.30%, the far-right Victory party gathered 4.42% of the votes.
Moreover, the anti-establishment Course of Freedom party and another far-right party Voice of Reason managed to pass the 3% election threshold needed to send deputies to the EP.
Consequently, of the 21 lawmakers the country will send to the EP, seven will be from ND, four from SYRIZA and three from PASOK.
KKE and Greek Solution will send two lawmakers each, while Course of Freedom and Voice of Reason will send one lawmaker each.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakos admitted his party ND didn't perform as they expected.
“I will not hide the truth. Our party did not reach the goal we had set," he said in a televised speech.