Poll shows Tsipras in lead as Greece gears up for vote

Greece geared up for its fifth election in six years with an opinion poll Friday showing leftist leader Alexis Tsipras ahead despite a wave of defections from his Syriza party over the terms of the country's massive new bailout

"Today the great electoral battle begins. The Greek people will give a strong mandate for the present and the future," Tsipras said in a statement to the Syriza newspaper Avgi.

"Greece cannot turn back and will not turn back. It will only go forward," said Tsipras, who rode to power in January on a wave of popular anger over austerity but is now  seeking re-election to apply fresh cuts.

A poll in leftist newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton gave Syriza a 3.5-point lead over the conservative New Democracy, even though a majority of voters disapprove of the snap ballot likely to be held on September 20.

The survey by pollsters ProRata said 23 percent of voters would support Syriza over 19.5 percent for New Democracy.

But 25.5 percent of respondents are undecided.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Thursday appointed the country's top judge as caretaker prime minister to organise the vote.

Supreme Court head Vassiliki Thanou, 65, thus became Greece's first female prime minister albeit briefly.

- Parliament to be dissolved -
The official announcement of the election date is expected later Friday after parliament is formally dissolved.

The caretaker government includes former socialist finance minister Nikos Christodoulakis as economy minister, and George Houliarakis -- the main Greek negotiator with the country's creditors -- as finance minister.

There is only one known photograph of low-profile Houliarakis, who prefers to work in the background, in circulation -- speaking to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a government trip to Berlin in March.

Veteran diplomat and ex-conservative minister Petros Molyviatis will lead the foreign ministry for the third time. He had also served as caretaker foreign minister during elections in 2012.

Popular singer Alkistis Protopsalti was named junior minister for tourism, and the longterm head of the National Gallery, Marina Lambraki-Plaka, as junior minister for culture.

Syriza was hit by a wave of defections across the board after he signed up to a third EU bailout worth 86 billion euros ($96 billion) which critics say is the harshest Greece has adopted so far.
A group of 25 hardline lawmakers split off to form their own party, Popular Unity, and Syriza has also been hit with resignations at local party level.

According to Friday's opinion poll, Popular Unity would pick up 3.5 percent of the vote, just above the minimum required for parliamentary representation.

Tsipras' eight months in power have proved a rollercoaster for the troubled Greek economy.

As talks broke down in June between Athens and its international creditors and Greeks rejected austerity proposals in a referendum, the European Central Bank restricted its assistance to Greek banks, forcing the government to shut them down and impose capital controls to avert a run on deposits.

But there may be hope yet.

Earlier this month, the statistics agency said output had surprisingly picked up in the second quarter of the year, growing by 0.8 percent -- at a time when Greece was bickering with its creditors over the bailout and fears of a Greek exit from the eurozone were running high.

On Friday, the agency revised the figure upwards, saying the economy had grown by 0.9 percent.
Source: AFP