ATHENS – Greece’s governing conservatives were winning parliamentary elections today, overcoming anger over their handling of wildfires that devastated villages and killed 65 people last month, official results showed.

Prime Minister Karamanlis emerged beaming onto the balcony of his party headquarters in central Athens and waved to cheering crowds of supporters below, but did not make any statements.

Thousands of New Democracy supporters thronged the streets of the capital in jubilation, blaring car horns, cheering, chanting party slogans and waving the party’s blue flags.

With 40 percent of the vote counted, New Democracy was ahead with 43.7 percent, while the opposition socialist PASOK party had 38.5 percent. Initial figures showed turnout at 70 percent.

Costas Skandalidis, a socialist leader, said his party had lost.

“New Democracy has won the elections and PASOK has lost,” said Mr. Skandalidis, former socialist interior minister and former party secretary. “I can say 10 reasons why we lost, but I want to see the final results.”

The results indicated that New Democracy would win enough seats in the 300-member parliament to form a governing majority after the snap elections, called by Mr. Karamanlis six months early.

Both parties, however, appeared to have lost some support following the fires and a financial scandal.

“We are not happy that we have lost 2.5-3 percent support, but in the next term we will govern better,” said outgoing Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

Mr. Karamanlis, 51, had sailed to victory in 2004, becoming the youngest prime minister in modern Greek history. The country’s economy has done well under the conservatives, with robust consumer spending and strong property market. Growth was expected to continue at more than 4 percent this year — one of the fastest growth rates in Europe. Unemployment has also plummeted.

“Mr. Karamanlis is a Teflon prime minister. He has prevailed despite all the negative events: the bond scandal and the recent fires,” Alexis Papachelas, editor of the conservative daily Kathimerini, said on Skai television. “The question is whether Karamanlis will show strong leadership despite his slender majority or worry about party factions.”

Before today’s vote, Mr. Karamanlis had ruled out forming a coalition with any other party if he did not win enough seats to govern outright. A hung parliament could lead to new elections.

The new government will be faced with implementing tough reforms, including overhauling Greece’s fractured and debt-ridden pension system. Mr. Karamanlis had vowed to push through the reforms even with a weak government.

New Democracy held 165 of the 300 seats in the outgoing parliament and if it comes out with fewer seats, that would make it harder for the next government to carry out contentious economic and educational reforms.

“The size of the majority will not affect how effective our government is,” said Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos. “Even with 151 deputies in parliament, we will proceed with our reform program.”

When he called the early election in mid-August, Mr. Karamanlis had seemed assured of victory despite anger over a bond scandal in which state pension funds were sold bonds at inflated prices.

But massive fires that killed more than 65 people and devastated large parts of southern Greece left his government reeling from accusations of mismanagement and incompetence in its response to the disaster. The prime minister quickly ordered aid and cash payouts to be given to the fire victims, and pledged to rebuild each burned home.

In the fire-ravaged villages of southern Greece, many of which remain without water or electricity, prefabricated containers were being used as temporary voting centers.

In Makistos, nearly 200 miles southwest of Athens, residents were bitter.

“We are expecting nothing from these elections. We don’t even know if we are going to vote. Nobody has told us anything,” Hariklia, whose home was destroyed by fire, told AP Television News.

Both New Democracy and PASOK seemed to have lost voters to smaller parties, particularly the two left-wing parties that are traditionally represented in parliament.

Exit polls projected that the communist KKE party would win between 6.4 percent and 9 percent, with the SYRIZA left-wing coalition at 4.5 percent to 6 percent. In the 2004 elections, they had won 5.9 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.