The present invention relates to an Electronic ballast for operating a high-pressure discharge lamp, comprising a switched-mode power supply circuit (SMPS) for supplying a rail voltage Vrail to the high pressure discharge lamp, the power supply circuit comprising a half bridge commutating forward circuit including an inductance (Lhbcf), a capacitor circuit of a first capacitor (Cs1) and a second capacitor (Cs2) in series, the lamp (LA) being connectable between the inductance (Lhbcf) and a midpoint (M) between the first and second capacitor (Cs1,Cs2); a duty cycle control circuit, connected to the switched-mode power supply circuit, for controlling the duty cycle of the half bridge commutating forward circuit; and overvoltage protection means for protecting said capacitors against overvoltage, comprising-a midpoint voltage detection circuit for detecting the voltage at the midpoint between the first and second capacitor, the midpoint voltage detection circuit providing a first signal representative of the detected midpoint voltage; voltage difference determining circuit for determining the difference between the first signal and a second signal, which is representative of half the rail voltage, wherein the voltage difference determining circuit is connected to the duty cycle control circuit and the duty cycle control circuit is operable to change the duty cycle of the half bridge commutating forward circuit if the determined difference exceeds a maximum voltage difference.