Greek voters to cast ballot in snap elections

Greek voters head to the polls for a snap election being held under the shadow of a looming recession, with the opposition socialists likely to win.

Led by former foreign minister George Papandreou, who is the son of late prime minister Andreas Papandreou, the socialist PASOK party held a lead of 5-7 points over the ruling conservatives in the opinion polls published two weeks ago.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called the snap election halfway through his four-year term with his New Democracy party, stung and distracted by corruption scandals, finding it increasingly difficult to govern as the country faces a dire economic crisis.

Buoyed for years by growth rates around four percent, partly attributed to EU funds, Greece is now on the brink of recession with output growth at near zero.

Greece's public debt, one of the highest in the euro zone, is set to exceed 100 percent of its gross domestic products (GDP) this year, and the European Union placed the country under supervision in April over its excessive budget deficit.

Greece's 9.8 million registered voters will be able to cast their ballots at over 20,800 polling stations on Sunday.