Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party’s lead over ruling SYRIZA in the most recent opinion poll unveiled this week reaches 6.5 percentage points, a lower gap than the one recorded in a bevy of recent polls but still at a comfortable distance.
According to a poll by the Alco firm commissioned and presented on the Athens-based Open television station, the center-right party is preferred by 26.9 percent of respondents, compared to 20.4 percent for leftist SYRIZA.
The same three parties follow — ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi), the Communist Party (KKE) and the PASOK-led KINAL party – as in practically all mainstream opinion polls for the past two years.
What’s noteworthy about this poll is the fact that social democrat/socialist KINAL is only given 4.6 percent of the vote, whereas other surveys over the recent period showed it exceeding 8 percent and coming in third. Golden Dawn is given 6 percent and the KKE 5.8 percent.
Another surprise is a 2.9-percentage point showing for the far left Popular Unity (LAE) party, which in other polls barely managed to exceed 1 percent. Surpassing 3 percent of the vote in a general election in Greece (counting valid ballots) gets a party into Parliament.
The latest opinion poll has six parties, in fact, making it into Parliament if the percentages cited materialize into real numbers at the ballot box, given that the Union of Centrists is gauged at 3 percent.
This specific poll also records a large number of undecided voters, 18.2 percent.
