At 7 AM in Greece started the day of the elections; the citizens gave their votes for European Parliament representatives in 20 435 poll stations. Voting will last until 7 PM, when the results from the exit polls will be announced. By 11 PM approximately 20% of the voting-papers will have been processed and the first official results will be announced.

Some minor accidents took place in the beginning of the elections day in Athens, timely eliminated. In Neos Kosmos, the municipality had given the wrong keys, so the room was open later than scheduled and voting was delayed. At another poll-station, on Patission Boulevard, the purse of the station chairwoman, with the keys inside, was stolen, so the rooms had to be opened by the police.

Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the minister of interior, announced the voting results of the Greeks living abroad. From a total of 36 449 people with a right to vote, 25 844 did, which translates into 70.33% voting activity- 4% less than the European Parliament elections in 2004.

In order to be allowed to vote, everyone needs to submit an ID card, a passport, a driver’s license or a health- insurance ID card. It is not allowed to draw any signs on the voting-papers; however voting-papers with such signs on them will not be considered invalid.

Today 9 866 913 Greeks are choosing 22 representatives in the European Parliament. Recent sociological surveys indicated serious priority in favor of the opposing socialists from PASOK, which, however, falls within the margins of the statistical error and strongly depends on the voting activity today. The second position is for the governing New Democracy and the Communist party and the Green Ecologists are competing for the third position.

With high voting activity began the elections day in the Bulgarian embassy in Athens and the General Consulate in Thessaloniki, where the two polling stations on Greek territory are situated. Both stations opened at 6 AM and the voting will last until 7 PM. To facilitate a smooth voting process in Athens and Thessaloniki, two voting commissions are in charge, consisting of 7 people each and including embassy and consulate representatives, as well as representatives of the Bulgarian community in Greece. The only party that wished for its representative to be part of the voting commission in Athens is Ataka and after the submission of the corresponding documents the member was included in the commission.

The Bulgarians that are permanently residing in Greece have the right to vote for Greek representatives in the European Parliament after having declared their wish to do so in February.