Nearly 10 million Greeks are expected at polling stations on Sunday to elect a new government, a few weeks after deadly wildfires ravaged the southern region of the country.

More than 20,500 polling stations opened their doors early Sunday in 56 electoral districts, authorities saying the voting is going “smoothly” at all stations.

The early general election will certainly be a neck-to-neck race between the ruling conservative New Democracy party of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and the opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) led by Georgios Papandreou, the son of Greece’s former premier Andreas Papandreou.

Karamanlis, 52, is seeking a second term relying on his reforms which cut the economic deficit and unemployment rate. Since he won the 2004 election a new electoral law was introduced, which makes it tougher for small parties to gain seats in the parliament.

According to the new law, a party must receive more than 3 per cent of the vote to have members in the parliament, while a government can be formed by a single party only if it wins at least 42 per cent of the vote.

“We respect and trust citizens and take part in this democratic procedure with a smile and confidence,” Karamanlis said after casting his vote in Thessaloniki.

Despite boosting the gross domestic product (GDP), the ruling party’s popularity plummeted after several financial scandals and last month’s forest fires, which killed 65 people. The government was accused of acting sluggishly and allowed the flames to destroy more than 500,000 acres of forest, thousands of homes.

The latest opinion polls revealed that the PASOK closed in and represents a serious challenge for the New Democracy. The ruling party has a slight advantage of 2 percentage points over the socialists, but none of the parties seems to have enough support to form a government.

Thousands of people blasted the government for failing to get a grip on the nationwide crisis last month and said they are more preoccupied to rebuild their homes, while 10 per cent of the voters were undecided.

If the voters’ stance remains unchanged, the major parties will have to form alliances with smaller ones like the Communists, the Left Coalition or the populist party Popular Orthodox Rally.

The voting process will end at 7 pm (1600 GMT), exit polls being expected to be released immediately after the stations close.