The Greek election is on Sunday 20th September and here's what to look out for

The race to see how many Prime Ministers you can have in the shortest amount of time switches from Australia to Greece. Election fever (or sickness depending on your view) will be gripping Greece this weekend

Here's the rundown of how things will play out;

  • 7am local time (5am GMT) the polls open and they close at 7pm local
  • Exit polls will be published at the close with an initial result released around 9.30pm (7.30pm gmt)
  • The vote count will be published here http://ekloges.ypes.gr/
  • 19 parties are up for being elected and need 3% of the vote to win seats in the new parliament. Early indications are that 7-9 parties will pass
  • The overall winner gets a 50 seat bonus
  • The new PM will then have 15 days to win a confidence vote requiring 151 votes from the 300 seat parliament. It's unlikely that any one party will make that number
  • If there is no absolute majority then the president gives the leading party 3 days to form a government, which is where negotiations come in with other parties
  • Failure to form a government will see the president call leaders to form a unity government
  • If that fails (like it did in 2012) Greece goes back to the polls

Syriza is going head to head with New Democracy and you'll struggle to get a fag paper between them based on the opinion polls

Election polls

Meimarakis and Tsipras: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

This time things will be different, won't they?

I don't think the market is going to give this more than a passing glance this time. Even the Greeks may be suffering electoral fatigue. Turnout was running at 80% in the 1980's and at 75% in the 10 years to 2005. 2012 saw 62% vote and slightly more in January at 64%

With the latest EU bailout almost a done deal whoever gets in is going to have to conform to the recent agreements. Any new Syriza type calls for tearing up austerity is going to end in tears. By and large the main parties are on board with the recent agreements. That won't stop any politicians popping up with incendiary comments though, so there's some market risk

The other risk is whether the Greeks are totally pissed off with the whole lot of them and protest vote for the more radical or extreme parties like Golden Dawn. If these sorts of parties get a bigger toe hold in parliament and are needed to form a majority deal then that could make the market a little nervous

What happens to the euro after?

Probably not a lot if the status quo remains or ND get in without much of a fuss. The market will probably think 'same s**t, different shovel' but there may be some light relief buying early on just on the basis that the election risk is removed. If it all goes to hell in a handbasket then the euro will likely suffer at the open. It just depends on how things stand. This is Greece remember and there is a history of these elections being dragged out

I wish our Greek readers and friends all the best for Sunday. I don't envy you and what you've had to go through, but just maybe, this time things will be different