Thousands of supporters gathered outside the leftist SYRIZA campaign headquarters in central Athens broke out into celebration on Sunday evening, seconds after broadcast exit polls showed the party holding a comfortable first-place lead over its conservative rival.

The victory is essentially the first time a decidedly leftist party has come in first in a Greek general election, whereas the scale of Sunday’s results bodes well for the forming of a SYRIZA majority government, or at least, a coalition government.

Forty-year-old SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras was expected to reach the campaign headquarters — in Athens’ Klafmonos square – later in the evening, although it still wasn’t known at press time whether he would made his victory address from there or at Zappeion Hall – where an international press centre operates and where winning parties’ leaders traditionally appear before the cameras.

Hundreds of foreign correspondents along with assorted television crews are in Athens at present to cover the election, with Tsipras’ first comments expected to circulate around the world in the next few hours.

Conversely, the result marks a tremendous failure for outgoing prime minister Antonis Samaras, who in three national election campaigns, never exceeded the 30-percent mark and only ruled for two and a half years.