Spain’s anti-austerity party has hailed Syriza win with a dig at Germany.

Here’s a preview of the Guardian’s front page on Syriza’s win.

At least one European finance minister has conceded that there could be scope for negotiation with Syriza, AP reports.

Belgium’s finance minister sees some room to discuss the “modalities” of the Greek debt programme with the other eurozone nations after Syriza’s election victory.

Johan Van Overtveldt said on the eve of a eurozone finance ministers’ meeting that “we can talk modalities, we can talk debt restructuring, but the cornerstone that Greece must respect the rules of monetary union that must stay as it is.”

He told VRT network that even if some things could be changed to accommodate the demands of Syriza, “it is impossible to fundamentally change things.”

More celebration from those on the left in Britain.

AP has this account of the Tsipras victory speech:

A triumphant Alexis Tsipras told Greeks that his radical left Syriza party’s win in meant an end to austerity and humiliation and that the country’s regular and often fraught debt inspections were a thing of the past.

“The sovereign Greek people today have given a clear, strong, indisputable mandate. Greece has turned a page. Greece is leaving behind the destructive austerity, fear and authoritarianism. It is leaving behind five years of humiliation and pain,” Tsipras said to a crowd of rapturous flag-waving party supporters.

The 40-year-old Tsipras campaigned on promises of renegotiating the terms for Greece’s €240 billion-euro bailout, which has kept the debt-ridden country afloat since mid-2010.

To qualify for the cash, Greece has had to impose deep and bitterly-resented public spending, salary and pension cuts and repeated tax hikes. Its progress in reforms is reviewed by debt inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank, collectively known as the “troika,” before each installment of bailout funds can be disbursed.

“The verdict of the Greek people ends, beyond any doubt, the vicious circle of austerity in our country,” Tsipras said. “The verdict of the Greek people, your verdict, annuls today in an indisputable fashion the bailout agreements of austerity and disaster. The verdict of the Greek people renders the troika a thing of the past for our common European framework.”

With Syriza falling just short of an outright majority, To Potami, the centre-left party could be the kingmakers in the new parliament. It is projected to secure 16 seats. Its leader Stavros Theodorakis has not ruled out a deal with Syriza. “It’s too early for such details,” he reported to have said.

Caroline Lucas, the Green party’s only MP in Britain, draws encouragement from Syriza’s win.

Syriza’s projected share of the parliamentary seats has edged up to 149, according to the latest projection from the interior ministry after 62% of the results.

Here’s audio of Tsipras’s defiant speech with a translation from Sky News.

Greece is leaving behind the austerity that led to destruction ... The verdict of the Greek people indisputably cancels all the programmes of austerity. The verdict of the Greek people makes the troika history in our common European framework.

Punching the air, Tsipras told the crowd: “Today the Greek people has written history, Hope has written history ... Greece is turning a page. Greece is leaving the austerity of catastrophe and fear … there are no losers and winners. Those who have been defeated are the elite and oligarchs … we are regaining our dignity, our sovereignty again.”

Tsipras adds: “Today was a defeat for the Greece of the elites and the oligarchs. The Greece that works and hopes won.” He promises a way of the “vicious cycle” of debt. “The new Greek government will prove all the Cassandras of the world wrong,” he says. He promises to restore popular sovereignty and a clash with corruption. “We regain hope, optimism and dignity,” Tsipras says.

Tsipras says has Greece has left behind despair and austerity. “Today we have celebration, tomorrow we start to work hard,” he says. He says the verdict of the Greek people clearly rejects austerity. He says Syriza has a mandate for national reconstruction. “The memorandums of austerity and destruction...the Troika is in the past,” he adds.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras is about to give a victory speech at Athens University.

Former London mayor Ken Livingstone is inspired by Syriza’s win.

Syriza has painted Greece’s political map red.

Germany and Syriza are about to enter a high stakes poker game, writes Louise Osborne in Berlin.

Julian Rappold, a political analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), says the German government would not have wished for such a strong result for Syriza and now faces possible renegotiation while also having to appease the German public.

“A haircut is non-negotiable from the German side, first and foremost because of the strong public opinion against the haircut, so I don’t think Germany is likely to give that concession,” he said. “If the result of the negotiations is presented in the German public as something which is broadly in line with German interests, I think it won’t be a problem, but if the concessions are considered to be high, it will be detrimental to the conservatives.”

Rappold added that both sides – Berlin and Syriza – would have to work quickly to establish communication channels. “A poker game is starting where both sides will try to figure out where the common ground is and which demands each can hope for.”

With more than half the results in, Syriza is still on course to win 148 seats, just short of a majority.

Here’s audio of Samaras conceding defeat, with a translation from Sky News.

Helena Smith picks out these snippets from Samaras’s speech.

“I assumed charge of a country that was on the brink of collapse … and we restored its international credibility.”

“Mistakes were made and injustices occurred,” he said referring to the wave of budget cuts and tax rises that were ordered under his tenure. “But I hand over a country in better shape and my conscience is clear. I hope that my forecasts [of economic catastrophe] will not be materialised.”

Samaras says Greek people have spoken and the country respects their decision. He says his government had to take difficult decisions and made some mistakes, but he insisted it set Greece on a course out of the crisis. He said his conscience was clear. “The elections result is not pleasant for us,” he said. But he pointed out that his party only lost two percentage points on the last election.

Outgoing PM Samaras is about to give press conference at a gloomy New Democracy party headquarters.

Not everyone in Germany is carping, writes Louis Osborne in Berlin.

Co-chairman of Germany’s Left Party Bernd Riexinger has congratulated Syriza on the results of the election saying it is clear it is a time for change, also in Germany. “In Germany we should also let it inspire us. We need in Germany not less, but more left-wing politics,” he said.

Meanwhile, co-chairman of the Greens parliamentary group, Anton Hofreiter told the Rheinischen Post the party was in favour of a conditional haircut in return for social and economic reforms in Greece. “Together with the new Greek government, the EU and the German government should seek ways to give the people in Greece perspective again,” he said.

With 40% of the results in Syriza is now set to win 148 seats, according to the latest projection from the Ministry of Interior.

The Clash’s London’s Calling is being played at the Syriza victory party in Athens.

The ice age is coming, the sun’s zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear
‘Cause London is drowning, and I live by the river

A GuardianWitness user in Greece has spoken of their elation and concerns after voting for Syriza.

With almost a third of the results in, Syriza is now course for 147 seats – four short of a majority.

Coalition won’t be easy according to Nick Malkoutzis, deputy editor of Greek daily Kathimerini.

There’s been more grumbling from Germany, according to Louise Osborne in Berlin.

The head of Germany’s eurosceptic party Alternative für Deutschland, Bernd Lucke, has called for a haircut for Greece, although he said it must be accompanied with an exit from the euro, according to reports from the Berlin newspaper the Tagesspiegel.

“Syriza doesn’t question the euro, but demands further debt relief and more loans. That doesn’t fit together,” he said.

The chairman of the CDU/CSU group in the European parliament, Herbert Reul, called the idea of another haircut unthinkable. “Greece must continue with the course of reforms if it doesn’t want to risk a departure from the monetary union,” he said.

Whether Syriza has done enough to secure a majority of seats is still in doubt, but that hasn’t stopped its supporters celebrating.

With a fifth of the results in, Syriza’s lead is narrowing, and so far short of the 37% it needs for an all-out majority of seats.

Former prime minister George Papandreou has urged Syriza to seek national consensus even if it emerges with an all out majority.

“No party, even with a majority, can handle [the] current situation alone,” he is quoted as saying at a press conference.

He predicted that his own new Movement of Democratic Socialists (Kinima) would secure enough votes to be represented in the new parliament.

Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann has called on Greece to stick to its agreements.

He said he hoped the new government would not make promises the country could not afford, Reuters reports, citing an interview with the broadcaster ARD.

“I believe it’s also in the interest of the Greek government to do what is necessary to tackle the structural problems there,” Weidmann said.

He singled out administration, public finances and the economy as being particularly in need of reform.

“I hope the new government won’t call into question what is expected and what has already been achieved,” he said.

Germany has insisted that Greece needs to stick with the austerity programme, whatever the result, writes Louise Osborne in Berlin.

Philipp Mißfelder, foreign policy spokesman for the ruling CDU/CSU parliamentary group, says there is a worry in Germany about a shift to populist movements in Europe that are “very bad for Europe and for the euro”.

“This kind of protest is not a surprise, people are unhappy about the austerity measures, not only in Greece but also in countries like Italy. But I think Syriza shouldn’t expect Germany to renegotiate with the programmes. They have to stick with what the former government has promised,” he said.

However, he said that if Greek politicians did want to negotiate, they would have to do so with the troika. “We are not in a position to negotiate,” he said, adding that Germany did not want to risk a “Grexit” and would try to avoid it.

While a lot of people in Germany are worried about the current development, he added: “Germans trust the government and they trust Angela Merkel and believe she has done the right thing … It was always crystal clear that without political reforms, it would always be complicated and there is a lot of homework to do for all of Europe, but the euro is one of the greatest achievements we’ve had in Germany.”

The second wave of exit polls now suggests that Syriza could fall short of an all-out majority of seats.

But the real results are beginning to come in, confirming a big win for Syriza.

Syriza supporters have started dancing.

But other European politicians have passed on congratulations to Syriza. One of the first was the Italian minister Sandro Gozi.

The sniping from Europe’s elite has already begun.

Sweden’s former prime minister Carl Bildt claims that taxpayers in other European countries will have to foot the bill for Syriza’s victory.

If the result is confirmed, Syriza would become the first anti-austerity party in government in Europe, AFP points out.

A Syriza victory is likely to send shockwaves through the austerity-hit EU and spark fears that Greece could leave the euro.

Syriza wants to renegotiate the terms of Greece’s €240bn bailout with the EU and the International Monetary Fund which the party says is stifling any chance Greece has of recovering from a six-year recession.

“This appears to be a historic victory, a message that does not only concern the Greek people, it resounds all over Europe and brings relief,” Syriza party spokesman Panos Skourletis told Mega TV.

The first official results of the third election in Greece in five years are expected at 7.30pm GMT.

Thousands of Syriza supporters gathered around the party’s main campaign platform in a central Athens square to hail their leader.

Antonis Balousis, a 54-year-old butcher, said: “This is a very important victory for Greece and Europe.

“We are going to prove that a different kind of politics is possible in Europe.”

Neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn and pro-European party To Potami are in a neck-and-neck race for third place with between 6.4% and 8% apiece, the exit polls showed.

Projections showed that Syriza may win an absolute majority of up to 158 seats in the 300-seat parliament, meaning it could rule without a coalition partner.

A third exit poll by Kapa appears to confirm that Syriza is heading for a big win.

Another exit polls suggest Syriza could have secured more than 40% of the vote.

Exit polls suggest that Syriza is likely to get between 146-155 in the 300-seat parliament, Helena Smith reports from Athens.

Giorgos Kyrtos, veteran political commentator – and now Euro MP for the conservative New Democracy party – is calling it a “historic moment” for the radical leftists.

There were scenes of jubilation at Syriza’s main electoral office in central Athens.

The Skai TV exit poll predicts that Syriza could secure 155 seats, according to the Guardian’s Helena Smith.

This would amount to a massive rejection of austerity and mean Syriza could govern on its own, avoiding a potentially tricky coalition with one of the other parties.

More exit polls suggest something of a Syriza landslide.

The Guardian’s Owen Jones reports on Syriza’s joy.

The exit polls suggest Syriza could win as many as 158 seats, enough for an outright majority. But they could also fall just short of 150 seats in the 300-seat parliament. Either way, the poll points to a big win for Syriza, but this is still just a projection at this stage.

The exit polls suggest Syriza could secure an outright majority.

Syriza is reported to be lining up Costas Karamanlis – a critic of austerity and a former Conservative prime minister as Greece’s new president.

Beware the exit polls, not just the leaked ones, warns the BBC’s Yannis Koutsomitis.

The Economists Intelligence Unit echoes the warning as does the Greek Analyst.

There are set to be four main exit polls just after the polls close in half an hour, according to Manos Giakoumis, chief analyst at the thinktank Macro Polis.

We should wait for these before getting too excited by reports of leaked exit polls giving Syriza a big lead, many have cautioned.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that New Democracy – the dominant force in prime minister Antonis Samaras’ outgoing coalition – is haemorrhaging votes to Syriza, writes Helena Smith in Athens.

The pattern of voting looks to be following May’s European election, which saw Syriza topping the poll.

Several Greeks have told the Guardian they would be switching vote.

Sophia Tzeorgou, a retired shop keeper, emerged from a polling station in Athens saying for the first time ever she had embraced the leftists.

“I am 66 and have voted New Democracy all my life, just as my mother and father did before me,” she said.

“Now me, my husband and two daughters are all supporting Syriza. There is no other way. Those who have been holding power over us have to go. They have taken everything from us. There is nothing more to give.” She added that her family’s disposable income had dropped by about €1,000 a month because of taxes, cuts and loss of benefits.

With just over an hour to go before polls close, this chart helps explain how the percentage of the vote necessary to secure a majority varies depending on how many of the smaller parties reach the 3% threshold necessary to secure a seat (see earlier).

Germany is bracing itself for the results, writes Louise Osborne in Berlin.

The country’s biggest daily, Bild, claims Syriza no longer wants conditions to be dictated by Europe, and that therefore “all that remains for the Greeks is an exit from the eurozone and a return to the drachma”.

Earlier this month, leaks from the German government suggested that Berlin was relaxed about Greece leaving the euro. But the report was later denied.

While we enter the final 90 minutes of polling why not check to see if your finances are any more robust than Greece’s?

Monitors representing Syriza in polling stations around Athens say they are very exited by unofficial exit polls that give the leftists a much bigger lead than thought, writes Helena Smith.

As the vote is still under way no one wants to go on the record – quite yet. But reports are being confirmed by analysts, who put the difference at as much as 12 percentage points (38-26) – an outcome that would likely give Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza party an outright majority in Athens’ 300-seat House.

Greece’s incumbent prime minister, Antonis Samaras, is apparently hunkered down in his office with top cadres from his conservative New Democracy party. The mood in the New Democracy camp according to the Greek media “is anything but good”.

Confused by how the Greek election system works? The Irate Greek explains a rule of thumb over what percentage of the vote will be enough to secure a majority of the 300 parliamentary seats. It all depends on how many of the smaller parties reach the 3% threshold necessary to secure a seat.

To determine the percentage of nationwide votes needed to secure a majority, you should deduct from 100% the percentage of valid votes obtained by parties who did not reach the 3% threshold and multiply the percentage left by 0.404.

If parties who did not reach the 3% threshold obtained 8.5% of all valid votes nationwide, the minimum percentage of votes needed to secure a majority in parliament is (100%-8.5%)*0.404 = 36.96%

In the 6 May 2012 elections, parties that did not reach the 3% threshold obtained 19.03% of votes. This means that a party with as little as 32.71% of votes would secure a majority in government. Following final results, the allocation of seats in parliament stands as follows:

Nea Dimokratia (conservative): 18.85% of votes, 108 seats
Syriza (leftwing): 16.78% of votes, 52 seats

Pazok (socialist): 13.18% of votes, 41 seats Independent Greeks (populist nationalist right-wing): 10.60% of votes, 33 seats Communist Party: 8.48% of votes, 26 seats
Golden Dawn (neo-nazi): 6.97% of votes, 21 seats
Democratic Left: 6.11% of votes, 19 seats

Reuters adds further explanation:

If all parties running get into parliament, the threshold for outright victory is just over 40%, but the majority drops depending on how many votes go to parties that fail to clear the 3% entry threshold
If, for example, 5% of the vote goes to parties that fail to get into parliament, the margin for victory could be around 38%.
If there is no outright winner, president Karolos Papoulias gives the leader of the biggest party a mandate to form a coalition or gain agreement for a minority government. Should this fail, the exploratory mandate is handed to the second party, and then to the third.
If the parties cannot agree, the president holds a final meeting with party leaders. If they still cannot agree, he appoints a caretaker government to call new elections.