Portugal set for tight election

Social Democratic candidate Durao Barroso on the campaign trail

LISBON, Portugal -- An exit poll at the end of voting in the Portugese general election indicates that the opposition Social Democrats may be heading for victory, but without a clear majority.

The result, quoted by Reuters reporting local media exit polls, would bring an end to six years of socialism.

The Social Democrats polled between 37 and 42 percent of the vote compared with 35-40 percent for the Socialists, according to the largest poll by private channel TV Independente.

A poll by public broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa also gave the Social Democrats a narrow win.

Polling stations opened at 0800 GMT and will close at 1900 GMT in mainland Portugal and 2000 GMT in the mid-Atlantic Azores islands.

The final official result is not expected to be known until March 27 after postal ballots from voters abroad have been counted.

Voters braved poor weather to cast their votes.

"I am sure that even in the bad weather we have today, many Portuguese are coming to vote and (that) from my point of view expresses a will for change," Social Democrat leader Jose Manuel Durao Barroso told Reuters.

Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, head of the governing Socialist Party said: "I am calm. I hope the Portuguese, despite the bad weather, will not delegate their future to others and will turn out to vote."

The election was called after Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Guterres resigned in December 2001.

Socialist leader Rodriguez is fighting to retain control of the government

Guterres stepped down after the party lost heavily in the municipal elections. Portugal was not due to go to the polls until next year.

He was replaced by Rodrigues, a former political prisoner, who helped found the militant Socialist Left Movement.

A switch to conservative policies would add momentum to a trend in European Union countries after conservative parties last year came to power in Italy and Denmark.

The Social Democrats have led all opinion polls over the past two weeks by between five percent and 10 percent.

"I want to end here by saying to you all ... that if next Sunday Portugal can call on me, I am ready, I am going to serve Portugal," Durao Barroso told a final rally in a Lisbon park.

Durao Barroso, who is a former minister, has based his economic programme on business and income tax cuts and on lower government spending as a way to draw investment to Portugal.

Rodrigues said: "We want a majority (in parliament) so that we can have political stability, but also to have social stability and economic progress."

He has called for tax cuts to boost the economy. He has also promised that Portugal will wipe out its budget deficit by 2004 as called for under a euro zone stability pact.

In January the European Commission recommended that Portugal should be formally warned that its budget deficit of 2.2 percent was close to exceeding the EU limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.

The new government is expected to take office in mid-April.