By Prensa Latina
Madrid : Ten days before the general elections, the Spanish socialists still have the lead over their main rival, and the possibility of obtaining absolute majority in parliament, according to several polls published on Wednesday.
A survey by the SER information company said the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Labor Party), to which government President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero belongs, has a five point lead with 44 percent of the voters’ support.
His main rival Mariano Rajoy, who belongs to the PP (People’s Party), has 39 percent, followed a long way behind by Izquierda Unida, with four percent, Convergencia y Union (2.3 percent), and Esquerra Republicana and Basque Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista Vasco), with 1.5 percent each.
The data of what they call Pulsimeter, carried out by the Opina Institute does not yet include the impact of the debate held on television on Monday by Rodriguez Zapatero and Rajoy, narrowly won by the current head of government.
From another angle, the poll showed that 61 percent of the electors believe that the socialist leader will win on March 9 and 16 percent support the opposition candidate, although 48 of 100 people want the socialist’s victory and 34 want the opponent to win.
A poll published by El Pais daily augurs the PSOE victory, with 44.2 percent of the vote, against the PP’s 38.6 percent.
That balance would grant the socialists between 170 and 177 seats in the Congress, a larger number than the 164 under their control since the 2004 elections, and close of the 176 seats that shape the absolute majority.