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Cultura

Syriza's lead shrivels ahead of Greek election - poll


    ATHENS (Reuters) - The lead held by Greece's leftist Syriza party over conservative foes has shrunk to just 0.4 percent, according to a poll on Wednesday, offering further evidence that former premier Alexis Tsipras's decision to call a snap election could backfire.

    Leftist Syriza was backed by 23 percent of those polled, versus 22.6 percent supporting the New Democracy party, the survey by pollster Alco on behalf of the news website newsit.gr showed. The gap between Syriza and New Democracy was 1.5 percentage points in an Alco poll released on Sunday.

    Fourteen percent of voters were undecided, the survey showed, less than three weeks before the Sept. 20 election.

    The far-right Golden Dawn party ranked third with 6.1 percent, followed by the Communist KKE at 5.5 percent.

    Popular Unity, a party formed by disaffected Syriza members who oppose the country's latest 86 billion euro bailout deal, drew 3.9 percent of those polled. The Independent Greeks, Syriza's former coalition ally, will not get enough votes to cross the threshold to enter parliament, the poll showed.

    Tsipras resigned in August in an attempt to crush a rebellion by far-left lawmakers within Syriza's ranks and solidify his hold on power. So far, he has ruled out cooperating with the main pro-euro opposition parties -- New Democracy, the Socialist PASOK and the centrist To Potami, stoking fears that the country will have to vote again.

    Date Poll Syriza ND Potami GD KKE Pasok IG PU

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    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

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    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

    UOM: University of Macedonia

    (Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Mark Heinrich)