Portugal centre-right could win parliament majority: poll

Portugal’s centre-right opposition could win an absolute majority in early elections, the most likely scenario following the resignation of Prime Minister Jose Socrates, a poll published Friday showed.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) would capture 46.7 percent of the vote against 24.5 percent for Socrates’ Socialist Party, in power since 2005, the Marktest poll for TSF radio and business daily Diario Economico found.

The Socialist Party captured 36.5 percent of the vote during the last general election in September 2009 compared to 29.1 percent for the PSD.

If the results are confirmed at the polls it would “correspond to an absolute majority” in parliament for the PSD, Marktest president Luis Queiros wrote in a commentary published in the newspaper alongside the poll.

The survey is the first to be published since Socrates resigned Wednesday after his minority government failed to win support in parliament for its latest austerity measures aimed at avoid an Irish-style financial bailout for the country.

The conservative CDS-PP party, which could take part in a coalition government with the PSD, is credited with 6.3 percent support in the poll.

The telephone poll of 805 people was carried out between March 18 and 23.