Greek left-wing leader Alexis Tsipras will receive the formal mandate to govern for a second straight term Monday, after his unexpectedly decisive victory in early national elections that saw most Greeks back parties committed to the debt-heavy country's harsh bailout commitments.

At 41, Tsipras now dominates Greek politics, having seen off both the main, center-right opposition and his own party rebels despite a sharp policy U-turn that kept the country in the eurozone but ditched the anti-austerity platform which first swept him to power in January.

Tsipras quickly announced that he will renew his pro-European coalition with the small, right-wing populist Independent Greeks (ANEL) party, which beat opinion polls to clear the three percent parliamentary entry threshold.

With more than 99.7 percent of Sunday's votes counted, Tsipras' Syriza had 35.5 percent, while New Democracy trailed with 28.1 percent. But in a sign of widespread discontent, more than four in 10 Greeks stayed away from the parliamentary election '€” the second this year '€” and Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn remained the country's third-strongest party with 7 percent.

Just two months ago, Syriza abandoned its pledges to reverse income cuts, tax hikes and labor reforms under duress to secure a third, 86-billion-euro (US$97 billion) international bailout for the recession-battered country. Tsipras has promised to put as human a face as possible on the inevitable new cutbacks and pension reforms his government must enforce to continue receiving the rescue loans.

"We will soften certain elements of the agreement, without breaking our [bailout] commitments," Dimitris Mardas, deputy finance minister in Tsipras' first government, said Monday.

Greek stocks opened more than 1 percent lower, but were about flat in later morning trading.

Berenberg Bank analyst Holger Schmieding said the result had several positive features for markets, and Syriza now has a clear mandate to do whatever it takes to keep Greece in the euro currency club '€” which it looked set to crash out of before the summer bailout deal.

"After years of almost unprecedented crisis, the vast majority of Greeks has once again endorsed parties that are promising to keep the country in the euro even if that implies thorough and painful reforms," he said.

Many Greeks voiced apprehension over the impending cutbacks, which follow a six-year wave of austerity measures that lopped a quarter off the economy and saw unemployment rise to 25 percent.

"I am happy that Tsipras was elected, but he should work, "said 54-year-old mechanic Kostas Tabaris. "He must [carry out] reforms, fix the crisis, help the poor, give presents, money to everyone."

Civil servant Nikos Georgopoulos, 40, said he found the result disappointing.

"I am pessimistic, because we already knew which line of politics will be followed," he said. "The politics of the third [bailout]. So we know that there is nothing good for the Greek people to wait for."

Just seven months into his term, Tsipras lost his majority in parliament after far-left rebels in his party opposed the tough conditions demanded by eurozone countries for the new rescue package. But rebels, who formed a breakaway party pledging to take Greece out of the eurozone, failed to get elected to parliament.

Teneo Intelligence analyst Wolfgango Piccoli said the overall result shows that Tsipras is now "the only player in town."

"His supreme political skill is only matched by the incompetence of his political adversaries," Piccoli said, but was skeptical of the new government's prospects.

"Another SYRIZA-ANEL deal also means that the cabinet will once more be composed of politicians with limited capacity and competence, as demonstrated before," he warned. "While the government can most likely continue to rely on mainstream parties for support during key votes, implementing the approved measures will remain challenging."

The new government will have a small majority of just five seats '€” and little time to waste.

Creditors are expected to review progress of reforms as part of the bailout next month, while the government will also have to draft the 2016 state budget. It must also oversee a critical bank recapitalization program, without which depositors with over 100,000 euros (US$113,000) in their accounts will be forced to contribute.

A total of eight parties won parliamentary seats, including the once-dominant Socialist Pasok, centrist Potami, the Greek Communist Party and the Centrist Union '€” a fringe party led by Vassilis Leventis, a political pundit famous for his on-screen outbursts of anger during appearances on his long-running late-night TV show.

Golden Dawn, whose leadership is on trial for allegedly running a violent criminal group, dropped marginally in its number of ballots, but had a slightly higher percentage of the overall vote due to the low turnout.

The vote was held as Greece struggles to cope with Europe's refugee crisis, and Golden Dawn performed strongly on the eastern island of Kos '€” which has seen massive refugee arrivals from Turkey '€” almost doubling its percentage there to 10 percent.

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