Greece to vote on Sept 20
Greece geared up yesterday for a snap election next month, with an opinion poll showing leftist party Syriza ahead despite a wave of defections over the country's massive new bailout.
The state-run ANA news agency said President Prokopis Pavlopoulous had signed a decree dissolving parliament and confirming the widely-expected date of September 20 for the crisis-hit country's fifth election in six years.
A caretaker government appointed by Pavlopoulos to organise the election took office earlier yesterday with Greece's top judge as prime minister, replacing Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras who resigned last week.
Tsipras, who rode to power in January on a wave of popular anger over austerity, is now seeking re-election to implement more reforms demanded under the new 86-billion-euro ($96-billion) international rescue package.
A poll in leftist newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton gave Syriza only a slim 3.5-point lead over the conservative New Democracy.
The survey by pollsters ProRata said 23 percent of voters would support Syriza over 19.5 percent for New Democracy. But more than a quarter of those polled said they were undecided.
The poll found that 64 percent of voters disagreed with Tsipras' decision to step down, and one in two were unimpressed with his promise to ease the austerity measures he ratified if re-elected. Syriza was hit by a wave of defections after Tsipras signed up to the third bailout, which critics say is the harshest Greece has adopted so far.
According to yesterday's opinion poll, Popular Unity would pick up 3.5 percent of the vote, just above the minimum required for parliamentary representation.
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