(MENAFN- AFP) Millions of Greeks have voted Sunday in a crucial referendum that could decide the country's fate in the eurozone, with two TV polls suggesting a 'No' result might prevail.
A telephone poll by the Star television channel carried out during voting and the day before gave a 49-54 percent range for 'No' votes against 46-51 percent for 'Yes'.
A similar Mega channel survey, broadcast shortly after polling ended, suggested a 49.5-53.5 percent 'No' vote and 46.5-50.5 percent for 'Yes'.
Defence minister Panos Kammenos said in a tweet after polling closed that the Greeks "proved they don't bow to blackmail, to threats".
The radical left government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had lobbied for a 'No' result, arguing it would strengthen its hand in negotiations with international creditors.
"No one can ignore the will of the people to live, to live with determination, to take its destiny into its own hands," Tsipras said as he cast his ballot in his Athens neighbourhood, appearing relaxed and wearing an open-necked white shirt.
But EU leaders have warned a 'No' vote could push Greece on the path to "Grexit" -- crashing out of the eurozone.
- 'We're afraid' -
Greece's voters -- many of them angry or fearful at capital controls this week that have shuttered banks and rationed ATM withdrawals -- were asked in the referendum whether or not they accepted further grinding austerity in return for European bailout funds.
The question related to a bailout package that expired on Tuesday, the same day Greece became the first developed country to default on a repayment to the International Monetary Fund.
"We're voting 'No' but we're afraid. But when we vote 'Yes', we're afraid as well. We're afraid on both sides," Nadia, a 63-year-old retired teacher on the island of Poros, near Athens, said after voting, her eyes red from crying.
"When you have to choose between two bad solutions, you choose the least bad, and that's clearly 'Yes'," said Dimitris Kavouklis, 42, as he voted in an upmarket district of the capital.
Tsipras's flamboyant finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, had slammed Athens's creditors for raising the spectre of Grexit, pointing out that no legal mechanism exists to force a Grexit.
If a 'Yes' resulted, he said he would resign, and the pressure would be on Tsipras to do the same.
Initial official results from the referendum were expected later Sunday.
Although the referendum offered a long and technical question that many voters grumbled was impossible to understand, minds for the most part were made up, with opinion almost evenly divided.
Michelis, an 80-year-old who had been first through the doors of a primary school being used for the vote in central Athens, said he voted 'No' "because they (the creditors) will take us more seriously".
Theodora, 61, a retired journalist, said she voted 'Yes' because "it's a 'Yes' to the European Union".
- Greece in default -
Greece was officially declared in default on Friday by the European Financial Stability Facility, which holds 144.6 billion euros ($160 billion) of Greek loans, after Athens missed a IMF repayment.
With its credit lifeline reduced to a trickle, the government this week closed banks and capped daily ATM withdrawals to 60 euros ($67).
The banks' liquidity was expected to dry up entirely within a day or two unless the European Central Bank (ECB) -- a major creditor -- injected funds quickly.
Martin Schulz, the head of the European Parliament, was scathing of Tsipras's government in an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper, saying it had led Greece into a "dead end".
Nevertheless, he said, Europe in the short-term could give "emergency bridging loans to Greece so that public service can be maintained and needy people get the money they need to survive".
Tsipras has called for much more than that, demanding the ECB, IMF and European Commission forgive 30 percent of the 240 billion euros ($267 billion) they have loaned Greece over the past five years, and allow it a 20-year grace period before it starts repaying the rest.
So far, the German government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel has been playing hardball with Greece. Some reports suggested it wanted to force a Grexit as a lesson to other lagging eurozone nations.
But that was causing a split among the big eurozone economies.
In an interview published Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said that, no matter the referendum's result, "we must start talking to each other again -- no one knows that more than Angela Merkel".
France's economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, said that even if Tsipras gets his 'No', bailout talks must resume. And in what could be seen as a thinly-veiled jibe at Germany, he warned that Europe cannot "crush an entire people".
France's President Francois Hollande and Merkel are due to meet in Paris on Monday to discuss the result of the referendum, the French presidency said.
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