Early results on Friday indicated that Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos has been elected the new leader of PASOK, Greece’s Socialist party, and will replace George Papandreou.
Venizelos, the only candidate for the post, garnered 96% of the vote, based on the 29% of election precincts reporting.
Greek voters head to the polls in May, in an election that will likely result in another coalition between the two parties, which will push ahead with austerity plans.
PASOK’s support has sunk as low as 11% due to public anger over repeated austerity measures, which have included salary and pension cuts as well as several rounds of tax hikes.
The finance minister, along with the European Union and IMF, has urged that Greece must continue to stay on track and be “very diligent” in meeting bailout terms despite the upcoming changes.
In the meantime, holders of credit default swaps on Greek bonds are set to benefit from the country’s bond swap deal, which was agreed this month with private creditors to lower the nation’s debt load.
These swaps act as insurance for holders of bonds in the event of a default, and an international finance body expects that the recent swap will trigger payouts at an estimated total value of approximately $3.2 billion.