Portugal campaign winds up, Socialists way ahead

Portugal's opposition Socialists could win an absolute parliamentary majority in a general election tomorrow, giving them a solid base to implement their economic plans, opinion polls showed yesterday.

A clear win for the Socialists would give their leader Jose Socrates a solid base to try to boost economic growth in the poorest country in western Europe.

"The Socialist Party is a few days away from having a historic victory in Portugal," Mr Socrates, 47, told reporters during a last day of campaigning in Lisbon and its suburbs.

Mr Socrates faces the tough task of closing a stubborn budget gap that breached euro currency zone limits in 2001. He has vowed to kick-start growth through technological training and investment.

Socialists have the support of between 45 per cent and 46.8 per cent of voters, according to seven polls released yesterday or late on Thursday.

Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes's Social Democratic Party (PSD), which has alternated in power with the Socialists since a 1974 revolution ousted a rightist dictatorship, has between 26.8 and 31 per cent backing.

"This is the greatest gap between the Socialists and the PSD in the history of Portuguese democracy," Rui Oliveira e Costa, head of the Eurosondagem polling agency, said on SIC television.

Pollsters see 45 per cent as the mark for the Socialists to win an absolute majority in the 230-seat parliament. It would be the first clear majority by any party in a decade.