A public opinion poll in Greece conducted by Pulse and published on bankingnews.gr has put radical left-wing Syriza party slightly ahead of its closest rival.
The poll showed that Alexis Tsipras, former Prime Minister, is on course to win 27 percent of the vote in the vote to be held on September 20 while the opposition conservative New Democracy party, is projected to get 26.5 percent of the vote.
Right-wing party Golden Dawn was third in the poll with 6.5 percent of
the vote and Syriza's former coalition partner, Independent Greeks, had
2.5 percent - less than the 3 percent threshold necessary to enter
parliament.
Tsipras resigned last month - just eight months after he came to power in January, thus driving second Greek election this year. Syriza's tenure of office was first dogged by fraught negotiations with Greece's international lenders over reforms and then by a rebellion within his party after he agreed to far-reaching austerity measures in return for a desperately needed third bailout.
On Monday, Tsipras said he was seeking an absolute
majority for his party but indicated that a coalition government would
be formed quickly if no party won enough seats to govern alone.
Citizens were feeling pessimism, regardless of the election's outcome, with 61 percent of Syriza voters, and 67 percent of New Democracy supporters expecting the economic situation in Greece to be worse in 2016.
The snap election has
also been an additional concern for the country's lenders and analysts.
Otmar Issing, German economist and former European
Central Bank (ECB) board member, said in an interview with CNBC that the
outcome of the election "had become so uncertain."
It's only a speculation, in his opinion, as Tsipras has lost popularity and Greece needs a stable political environment to conduct immediate reforms.
Any new government is necessary to
create stability for both the Greek public and investors, "otherwise,
I'm afraid, the crisis will continue," he said.
Stephen King, senior economic adviser at HSBC, commented that there was likely to be more political frictions in the years ahead over the 86 billion euro bailout and the tough targets lenders have placed on the country.
"Greece has to drive down its labor costs, it has
to make itself more competitive and do lots of restructuring and there
will probably be more political opposition to that over the next two or
three years," King said in an interview.
"They've got this incredible commitment to
delivering this primary surplus for a number of years and it's difficult
to find examples in the world of countries that have done that year
after year without having the benefit of some kind of exchange rate
devaluation so Greece has a long way to go to get back to some sense of
economic normality."
