The first official estimation for Sunday’s Greek referendum results show a victory for the NO vote with a 61% against a 39% YES vote with 46% of the votes counted, according to The Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reconstruction. This is a very significant victory for the Greek government, which was campaigning in favor of the NO vote arguing that it will strengthen Greece’s negotiating power in its attempt to strike a better deal with its international creditors than the one previously offered. On the other hand, European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker said on Friday that a NO vote would “dramatically weaken” the Greek negotiating position. The implications of the vote are unclear at this moment. The referendum was organized within a week, a period well below the 20 days most elections take to be organized. The Greek parliament’s ratification of the referendum last Saturday evening triggered a series of events that made up for a very long week in Greece. On Sunday, the European Central Bank decided to not increase the European Liquidity Assistance to Greek banks and in response the government imposed capital controls and withdrawal restrictions on the same evening. On Tuesday Prime Minister Tsipras requested a two year deal with the ESM which led to urgent Eurogroup meetings on the same and the next day. The outcome of the meetings was to postpone any further talks on the Greek request until after the referendum. Stavros Theodorakis, the leader of the Potami party, was verbally attacked by around 30 voters in the voting station when he went to cast his ballot but there were no further incidents. Overall, the voting process went smoothly without any problems reported.
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