Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party appears comfortably ahead of ruling Pasok in two recent opinion polls commissioned for separate Sunday newspaper editions.
Specifically, ND garnered the support of 21.3 percent of respondents to Pasok's 15.5 percent, a lead of 5.8 percent. Results of the poll will be published on Sunday by the Athens weekly "Proto Thema".
In terms of smaller opposition parties, the Communist Party picked up 7.4 percent; the Popular Orthodox Rally (Laos) 5.6 percent and the Radical Left Coalition (Syriza) five percent. The only party exceeded the 3-percent limit for entering Parliament, according to the survey, is the current out-of-Parliament Ecologists-Green party, given 3.5 percent.
Interestingly, the number of respondents identified as undecided, abstainers or those intending to cast blank and invalid votes reaches 32.6 percent.
If correlating the number of valid votes, then the figures are 29.3 percent for ND and 21.3 percent for Pasok, according to the poll, conducted by the firm Alco.
Additionally, 79 percent of the respondents said recent sacrifices entailed by a series of austerity measures have been wasted, while six in ten respondents is concerned they will lose their jobs.
In another opinion poll to be released by the Sunday edition of the Athens daily "Eleftheros Typos", ND is ahead of Pasok by six percentage points -- 21.5 percent to 15.5 percent.
KKE is picked by nine percent of respondents; 5.5 percent for Laos and five percent for Syriza. Only the newly created Democratic Left party reaches the 3-percent mark. Thirty percent of respondents said they were undecided.
Core support by Pasok supporters is at 36 percent, 60 percent for ND.
Finally, 59.5 percent of respondents in this opinion poll, conducted by the firm Pulse, said neither Prime Minister George Papandreou nor ND leader Antonis Samaras was most suited to be premier. Nevertheless, Samaras led Papandreou by 24 percent to 15 percent.
AMNA
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