Greek conservatives oust Tsipras in election landslide

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras admitted defeat Sunday in a general election won handily by the conservative New Democracy party after over four years in opposition, his office said. The result cuts short Tsipras's bid to lead Greece on into the post-bailout era after presiding over its fraught rescue by international creditors at the height of the European debt crisis.
Leftist Tsipras called New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis to congratulate him, a source in the prime minister's office told AFP. Early results from 40 percent of polling stations showed New Democracy scoring a crushing victory by nearly 40 percent to over 31 percent for Tsipras's leftist Syriza party. "The result has been determined... but we'll be back," outgoing finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos told state TV ERT. If the results are confirmed, the 51-year-old Harvard graduate and former McKinsey consultant Mitsotakis will have a majority of 158 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament. Tsipras's party will have 86 seats. The final number will depend on how smaller parties fare. They need at least 3.0 percent of the vote to enter parliament.