Greece's Syriza, rivals neck-and-neck in poll run up: surveys

Elections in Greece next weekend will be a cliffhanger with the radical leftists of ex-premier Alexis Tsipras having a razor-thin lead over New Democracy conservatives, new poll surveys showed Sunday.

Greeks go to the ballot for the fifth time in six years next Sunday as Tsipras seeks a fresh mandate to push through huge reform commitments made under the new 86-billion-euro ($96-billion) bailout.

Four polls published a week ahead of the vote showed Syriza leading by between 0.3 to 0.7 percent over the main opposition party.

Tsipras' party will get 25.9 percent of the ballot against New Democracy's 25.5 percent, according the MRB poll for the Real News newspaper.

An Alco for Proto Thema daily gave Syriza 25.4 percent against 24.7 percent for the centre-right opposition.

Two other polls by Kappa Research and RASS, also published Sunday, predicted similar results.

Another poll by Public Issue for Avghi -- a pro-Syriza newspaper -- predicted a tie with both parties at 31 percent.

It said 40 percent of respondents thought Tsipras was the best person to lead Greece against 37 percent who chose Evangelos Meimarakis, New Democracy's tough-talking leader.

Neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, which is hoping to capitalise from Europe's migration crisis, is steadily the third party in all polls -- ranging from 6.4 percent to 7 percent.

Both Syriza and New Democracy admit the necessity of implementing reforms linked to the new bailout but disagree on who will do it in the most efficient manner.

Tsipras on Sunday New Democracy being "with the Europe of Schauble," referring to the German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble who has been seen by critics as a technocrat who strong-armed a nation and heaped more economic woes on its citizens.

"New Democracy is with Mr. Schaeuble's Europe. We are with the forces that desire a social shift and the disengagement from the neo-liberal doctrines," the Syriza party leader told Ethnos newspaper on Sunday.

Greece must in October adopt a batch of additional reforms tied to its multi-billion EU bailout that was ratified by the parliament in August.

Chief among them is a new tax regime for farmers that scraps a number of benefits, making them a key dissatisfied group to watch in the election.