Alexis Tsipras: his Syriza party leads in polls

Greece’s national election appeared to shift on Friday in favour of Alexis Tsipras’ leftist Syriza party, if a flurry of late polls were to be believed, as the former prime minister closed his campaign with a plea for a high turnout.

Tsipras’s conservative rival, New Democracy leader Bangelis Meimarakis, remained within spitting distance before Sunday’s ballot, however, after a three-week run-in which the two men’s ratings have rarely been more than a half a point apart.

None of the surveys released on Friday suggested either Tsipras or Meimarakis would win an outright majority, setting the scene for coalition talks once the result becomes clear early on Monday.

The result is seen as crucial beyond Greece, which found itself almost ejected from the euro zone earlier this year.

The winner of the vote will need to oversee deep economic reforms required for an 86 billion euro ($98 billion) bailout brokered in August, a recapitalisation of the country’s banks, and the unwinding of capital controls imposed this year to prevent an implosion of the financial system.

Tsipras led in six polls released on Friday evening — the last day in which polling and campaign are allowed — trending further ahead of conservatives and with one giving him a 2.5 point lead.

Meimarakis won a single poll on Friday, the first of the day.

“Not one vote should be lost, we should not be beaten by abstention,” Tsipras said at a rally in Athens’ central Syntagma Square. “An abstention is a victory for New Democracy.”

Tsipras was boosted on the podium by some leading lights from the European left, including Pablo Iglesias, head of Spain’s Podemos party.

At his final rally on Thursday, Meimarakis focused on what he called Syriza’s “false promises” to Greeks about ending the austerity tied to the country’s international bailout, and its eventual acceptance on what some see as worse terms.

“It’s high time we did away with incompetence. The Syriza experiment ends on Sunday,” he said.

COALITION LIKELY

Neither party is expected to secure the roughly 38 percent share of the vote needed for a majority in the 300-seat parliament, meaning a coalition is a near certainty.

Friday’s polls broadly showed that, with the bonus of 50 seats given to the party with the most votes, Syriza could easily forge a coalition with the centrist To Potami party and the socialist PASOK.

*Reuters