Preliminary Results Greek General Elections

Exit polls and counts after midnight local time show a healthy victory for the Conservative government party, Nea Dimokratia of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis. Considering this summer's heavy wildfires - the worst in post World War II history, and possibly a series of concerted pyro terrorism attacks - no mean achievement.

The Socialist opposition's campaign - by anyone's standard - can only be termed gratuitous. It obviously backfired.

Both main parties are set to lose seats though. The smaller political parties - among those an old-fashioned communist party still heavily engaged in class struggle, and a Radical Left on a multiculti platform - won by some margins.

This was also the picture in the arson struck prefecture of Ileias, in which the ancient site of classical Olympia is situated. The Socialist Party PASOK is set to win there by a number of seats.

The other heavily hit area, the island of Eboia, is showing a government win; as is the case in the greater Athens area, with the exception of a 'red borrow' in the industrial port city of Piraeus.

Reverting tomorrow when the final count is in.