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Portugal's Socialist leader encourages indecisive voters to vote

Xinhua, October 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Antonio Costa, the leader of Portugal's main opposition party, the Socialist Party, on Thursday called on indecisive voters to make their minds up before the general elections on Oct. 4, namely those who were unsure of the Socialist's program.

"The Socialist Party doesn't promise too much, or more of the same, and each abstention is an indirect vote for the right-wing coalition," he said during a campaign in Gaia, northern Portugal, according to Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

Portugal's Socialist Party had been running almost neck and neck with Pedro Passos Coelho's center-right ruling coalition according to recent tracking polls, but a recent before-election poll showed that the ruling coalition is slightly ahead, with Marktest putting the ruling coalition at 41 percent of votes and the Socialist at 29 percent on Wednesday.

Portugal is expecting a historic low turnout on Sunday, according to Bloomberg, and many apathetic voters will be more concerned with football on Sunday, with the country's three main teams of Benfica, Porto and Sporting playing on the day of the elections. Enditem