Roundup: Greek election campaign ends, Leftists leading in surveys

Greece's election campaign ended on Friday with main opposition Radical Left SYRIZA party leading in all the latest opinion surveys over the conservative New Democracy party, while about 10 percent of voters still undecided ahead of Sunday's national polls.

"Each vote counts" both Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras stressed during their last-ditch appeals to the electorate.

The first urged Greeks to "vote with wisdom" and avoid a backstep to uncertainty, recession and to the brink of bankruptcy and exit from the eurozone after five years of painful sacrifices to avert economic catastrophe and restore growth.

The latter asked for a "clear mandate to bring change" to Greece and Europe and hold a strong card in negotiations with international lenders over the terms of post-bailout cooperation, as Greece's program expires in late February this year.

Stability or chaos was the dilemma put forward by Samaras, while Tsipras called on voters to choose between fear or hope.

Greece must not miss out on European economic growth by making a wrong choice in Sunday's general elections, Samaras said during the final rally of his party in Athens on Friday evening.

"We all welcomed Thursday's historic decision for the European Union. Europe moves forward to growth. Greece should not be left behind," he said, referring to the launch of European Central Bank's (ECB) quantitative easing program.

Greece will be able to participate under conditions.

SYRIZA' rhetoric over an end of austerity, tear up of memoranda and insistence on a new write off of part of the Greek debt has alarmed lenders, investors and analysts.

The speculation of a Grexit has resurfaced and Samaras accused SYRIZA of jeopardizing the country's future.

SYRIZA on the other hand accused Samaras of scaremongering, assuring that there was no intention of leading Greece to bankruptcy and Grexit, if SYRIZA assumes power.

During a press conference in Athens on Friday, Tsipras appeared confident that a "viable solution which will be to the benefit of both Greece and creditors will be found" most likely before July 2015.

"This is a first historic chance for the Left (to rule Greece after WWII), but it might be the last chance for Greece (to stand on its feet)," Tsipras stressed during the press conference.

SYRIZA was projected by the latest poll released on Friday evening to garner about 33.4 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with about 26.7 percent for New Democracy.

The lead seems to have widened in comparison with previous polls over the past week, but the party still falls far short of parliamentary majority.

In the GPO survey conducted for Mega TV channel the far-Right Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) party ranked third with 5.1 percent.

The centrist Potami (River) party which could be the most likely coalition partner of SYRIZA, according to political analysts in Athens, was placed fourth with 5 percent together with the socialists of PASOK, the smaller partner in the outgoing coalition.

The Greek Communist KKE party followed with 4.9 percent, the nationalists Independent Greeks with 3.5 percent and the Movement of the Democratic Socialists founded three weeks ago by former prime minister George Papandreou with 2.9 percent, marginally missing the 3-percent threshold required to enter parliament.

Other three opinion surveys released this week gave SYRIZA a lead of 4-5 percentage points over ND, while the percentage of the undecided just a few hours prior to the elections varied from 8.2 percent to 15.2 percent. Endit