Greece's conservatives call for unity in main rally ahead of Sunday general elections

Greece will move forward and exit the debt crisis only through unity and cross party cooperation after Sunday's snap general elections, main opposition conservative New Democracy (ND) party leader Vangelis Meimarakis said on Thursday addressing the party's main rally ahead of the electoral battle.

For first time since its founding in 1974 the party held its final main pre-election rally in Omonoia (Concord) square in the centre of Athens to underline ND's key message for unity and consensus in the post election political landscape in order to address the five year crisis.

"Concord, not discord for Greeks. We move forward," was the main motto written on banners raised by the crowd next to Greek national flags and slogans chanted by ND supporters.

"We chose Omonoia square to symbolize what we wish for our country," Meimarakis said, urging all Greeks regardless of which party they will vote for on Sunday to trust their political leadership again and all parties to support consensus.

The conservative leader did criticize the Radical Left SYRIZA party of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for the record of its seven month government and the result of negotiations with international lenders- the imposition of capital controls since June 29 which have further harmed the economy and the signing of a third painful bailout a few weeks later.

"The only new thing that SYRIZA brought was capital controls," he said replying to Tsipras' claim that SYRIZA represents the change for Greece, while ND and other parties the "old corrupted regime."

Meimarakis urged Greek voters to put an end to "political frauds and incompetence" on Sunday, appearing confident that on Monday he will be the one to get the mandate to form a government from the President of the Hellenic Republic.

"The key question is: more experiments or stability?" he asked, presenting New Democracy as a party with a sound plan to restart the economy, a party which supports job creating investments, while SYRIZA "pushes away investors."

According to all opinion surveys over the past two weeks, as well as the latest polls results released on Thursday, Sunday's elections will most likely be too close to call and neither ND or SYRIZA will get close to winning absolute majority in the parliament.

The only certainty a few hours before polling stations open is that a coalition partnership will be needed to rule Greece.

Both ND and SYRIZA garner 28 percent of votes each in the survey conducted by Pulse polling firm for Pontiki (Mouse) newspaper.

In the same survey the far-Right Golden Dawn party and the socialists of PASOK which run together with the Democratic Left on Sunday receive 6.5 percent each.

The centrist River (Potami) party and the Communist party KKE get 5 percent of votes each, the anti-bailout Popular Unity party 3.5 percent, the centre-Left Union of Centrists 3 percent, while the Right- wing Independent Greeks, Tsipras' junior coalition partner, fail to enter the new assembly.

Metron Analysis firm sees ND standing at 31.9 percent against 31.6 percent for SYRIZA, while ALCO gives a marginal lead to the Leftists who garner 25.3 percent of votes versus 25 percent for ND.

Following a party rift within SYRIZA which threatened the government's stability after the agreement to the third bailout, Tsipras and the cabinet quit in late August and a caretaker administration took over to lead the country to the polls.

The 41-year old leader triggered the early elections just a few months after the previous January 25 national polls which brought the Left for first time to power in Greece's modern history on pledges to tear up bailouts and put an outright end to austerity.

Tsipras sought a fresh mandate by the electorate to form a strong new government to lead the country out of the crisis, but opinion surveys show that after his party's U-turn, it was a risky gamble. Endit