(VOVworld) - Greece began voting on Sunday in a crucial general election that could bring the anti-austerity Syriza party to power and lead to a re-negotiation of the country’s international bailout.

About 9.8 million people out of a population of 11.4 million are eligible to vote in Greece early general elections (Photo: BGNES)

Syriza, led by 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, leads the incumbent conservative New Democracy party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras by around four points, according to pre-election opinion polls. Some 9.8 million people are eligible to vote. Polling stations close at 1700 GMT, followed immediately by the results of exit polls.