Greek opposition Radical Left leads in polls as Athens awaits bailout aid

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Greece's main opposition Radical Left SYRIZA party retained its opinion poll lead over the conservative party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, as Athens awaits the next bailout aid tranche in December, a survey released on Wednesday showed.

If elections were held today, the anti-bailout SYRIZA would win with 29 percent of votes, against 26.2 percent for the New Democracy (ND) party, according to the poll conducted by polling firm MARC for local Alpha television channel.

Another recent poll by local daily "6 Meres" (Six Days) gave SYRIZA 23.5 percent compared to 19 percent for ND.

In both surveys, as well as most polls since June's general elections, ND and its two center-Left coalition partners are losing ground due to Greeks' frustration over the ongoing austerity to tackle the debt crisis.

Only 20.3 percent of respondents saw a recovery in the next five years, according to Alpha's poll. Six out of ten feared that they could lose their jobs next year in the country where unemployment rates have already exceed 25 percent.

Nine out of ten participants in the survey said that their income had declined since the start of the crisis and the introduction of austerity measures to address it in 2010.

The government hopes that the climate will change after Tuesday's deal among euro zone and International Monetary Fund lenders for the disbursement of further vital loans to Greece in coming weeks and the reduction of the Greek debt.

Despite skepticism over the effectiveness of the current program to exit the crisis, most voters do not want to go to polls again soon.

Some 45.8 percent of respondents believe that eventually Greece will not avoid disorderly default, while 47.5 percent expect that the country will overcome the crisis. Endit

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