By Michele Kambas and George Georgiopoulos
ATHENS (Reuters) - Former prime minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday brushed off opinion polls suggesting his leftist Syriza party might lose to its conservative rival in Greece's election, saying he had a large group of supporters not reflected by pollsters.
Ahead of Sunday's vote, polls show the two main parties neck and neck, with some pointing to a victory for the conservative New Democracy party led by Vangelis Meimarakis. Neither is likely to secure the roughly 38 percent vote share needed for a majority in the 300-seat parliament, however, meaning a coalition is a near certainty.
"There is a voting body that is below the radar, it is not being traced," Tsipras told Greece's ANT 1 television on the last day of formal campaigning.
The former prime minister is to stage a final rally later on Friday, flanked by leading lights from Europe's anti-austerity left, including Pablo Iglesias, head of Spain's Podemos party, and Gregor Gysi, a German lawmaker for Die Linke, successor party to East Germany's old communists.
Five opinion polls on Thursday and Friday underlined the tightness of Greece's election campaign, offering different outcomes but showing Syriza and New Democracy within spitting distance of each other and pointing to no outright winner.
A coalition is almost certain to be needed, with the socialist PASOK party and centrist To Potami the likely suitors.
The result is seen as crucial beyond Greece, which found itself almost ejected from the euro zone earlier this year.
The winner of Sunday's vote will need to oversee deep economic reforms required for an 86 billion euro 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.
Most parties in the election -- including Syriza and New Democracy -- are committed to the bailout, albeit with different emphases on such things as labour reform. Polls give all the relatively pro-bailout parties combined support of around 65 to 70 percent of the vote.
But there may be some concerns if Greece cannot form a stable government quickly.
ALL TIED UP
Of the five polls published on Thursday and Friday, two put Syriza ahead, two had New Democracy ahead, and one was a tie.
Given that Greece's compliance with the bailout programme is at issue, many at European Union headquarters in Brussels and in other European capitals would like to see a broad coalition emerge from the election.
But Syriza, forced to concede the bailout in August with the threat of a disorderly exit from the euro zone looming, has ruled out any pact with New Democracy, which it regards as part of an old guard partly responsible for Greece's economic woes. The two parties also disagree on pivotal matters such as freeing up the labour market, collective bargaining and immigration.
Tspiras pointed to what he sees as Syriza's success in getting the EU to consider ways of easing Greece's debt burden.
"We fought the battle until the end and won ground for the country ... because there will be a negotiation for debt reduction," he said.
EU sources have told Reuters that euro zone governments, Greece's biggest creditors, are ready to cap the country's debt servicing costs at 15 percent of GDP annually over the long-term as part of the promised debt relief to help the economy grow.
Former prime minister George Papandreou, who headed PASOK, told Reuters Television that something needed to be done to ease Greece's debt burden.
?I think we need to find ideas which will alleviate the burden of the debt so we can breathe and get the economy moving," he said. "The debt is partly our responsibility, but it's partly the mistaken policies of (international lenders) in thinking that very soon we would have growth."
New Democracy, meanwhile, has been keen to highlight perceived credibility issues under Syriza, which swept to power in January on the promise of ridding the country of bailouts, only to agree to stringent new austerity terms six months later.
"The question is clear. Should we listen to false promises and wishful thinking, or move forward responsibly and with a national plan?" Meimarakis told cheering supporters in a central Athens square.
(Writing by Michele Kambas and Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Catherine Evans)
