Greek polls show Syriza, conservatives neck-and-neck
ATHENS (Reuters) - Former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras's leftist Syriza party is running neck-and-neck with its main conservative rival, New Democracy, ahead of national elections on Sept. 20, according to three polls published on Friday.
Syriza's poll lead has shrivelled since Tsipras resigned in August and called the snap election in an attempt to shore up support for the country's new bailout programme.
A poll by University of Macedonia for Skai television showed that Syriza and New Democracy would each get 27 percent of the vote. A second survey by MRB for Star television put them both on 29.6 percent.
A third poll by Metron Analysis poll earlier on Friday was the second this week to show the conservative party in the lead.
Tsipras came to power in January promising to reverse years of austerity. But he resigned last month after a rebellion in his party, seeking a fresh mandate to implement the bailout he clinched after seven months of often acrimonious negotiations with Greece's European and International Monetary Fund creditors.
Just a few weeks ago, a Syriza election victory had appeared almost certain as Greeks lauded the charismatic and youthful Tsipras for taking a hard-line stance with the creditors that he was eventually forced to give way on.
Undecided voters ranged between 10.5 and 15 percent in the three polls.
Date Poll Syriza ND Potami GD KKE Pasok IG PU UC
--------------------------------------------------------------
04/09 MRB 29.6 29.6 5.4 7.2 5.9 6.1 2.7 4.3 4.6
04/09 UoM 27.0 27.0 5.5 6.5 6.0 4.5 1.5 4.0 4.5
04/09 Metron 23.4 24.0 4.8 5.1 5.2 4.0 2.0 3.4 4.0
03/09 Pulse 25.5 25.0 5.0 6.0 5.0 5.5 2.5 4.0 3.5
02/09 GPO 25.0 25.3 4.6 5.5 5.1 5.3 3.0 4.0
02/09 Alco 23.0 22.6 4.4 6.1 5.5 4.2 2.0 3.9
01/09 Pulse 26.0 25.0 5.0 6.0 5.0 5.0 2.5 4.0
29/08 Alco 22.6 21.1 5.1 6.3 4.7 4.1 2.4 4.0
29/08 Kapa 27.3 24.2 5.5 6.8 5.0 4.3 3.0 4.8
29/08 MRB 24.6 22.8 5.6 6.2 4.7 3.9 2.3 4.2
28/08 ProRata 23 19.5 4.0 6.5 5.0 4.5 2.0 3.5
28/08 UoM 25 22 6.0 5.5 6.0 4.5 2.0 5.0
28/08 Marc 25.3 23.2 5.8 5.5 4.2 4.4 3.0 3.8
28/08 Metron 29 27.8 6.7 8.3 4.1
----------------------------------------------------------
ND: Conservative New Democracy party
Syriza: Radical Left Coalition party
GD: Far-right Golden Dawn party
IG: Right-wing Independent Greeks party
PASOK: Socialist party
KKE: Communist party
PU: Popular Unity hard-left breakaway from Syriza
UC: Union of Centrists
UOM: University of Macedonia
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, Writing by Deepa Babington; editing by Ruth Pitchford and John Stonestreet)
