By Hanadi Watfa
MADRID, June 24 (KUNA) -- The Spaniards are to go to the polls on June 26 for the second time in less than one year though the political scene remains complicated and new parliamentary elections are shrouded in uncertainty.
The main political parties are vying for the 350 seats of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house of parliament) and the 208 seats of the Senate (the upper house).
Recent opinion polls show that the center-right People's Party is unlikely to win a majority sufficient for forming a stable government which means that the status quo remains unchanged since the last elections of December 20. If this is the case, the mainstream conservative party (the PP) will have to enter into hard negotiations with other parties again in pursuit of a coalition partner.
While the competing parties intensified their campaigns in the run-up to the polls, the society in frustrated with the continued political standoff which had negative impacts on the economic conditions in the country.
In addition, the parties' programs focus on external issues, such as the situations in Venezuela, and ignore the social grievances at a time when 29 percent of the Spaniards are on the verge of poverty and marginalization.
A survey, conducted by the Institute for Advanced Social Studies, indicates that 8.5 percent of the 36.5 million eligible voters in Spain will boycott the polls and the turnout will decline from 73.2 percent in the December elections to just 71 percent.
Nearly 32.4 percent of the eligible voters have yet to make their mind on who to vote for, according to the survey. This situation encouraged the competing parties to intensify their campaigns since last Friday until today, June 24, to win the voters' confidence.
The main parties are the PP - led by the outgoing Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the center-left Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) - led by Pedro Sanchez, the left-wing Podemos (We Can) - led by Pablo Iglesias Turrion, Ciudadanos (The Citizens) - led by Albert Rivera, and the United Left (IU) - led by Alberto Garzon.
What is new in these elections is the recent formation of alliance between the Podemos and the IU which could bring about a change to the political scene. The left-leaning coalition has taken the second place from the PSOE after carving out a three-point lead over the Socialists, according to the latest Metroscopia survey Spain's voting system, based on proportional representation since the adoption of the current constitution in 1978, makes it hard for small parties to win seats in the parliament. For example, the IU had to get half a million votes in the last elections in order to win just one seat in the parliament while the PP needed only 59,000 votes to get a similar seat.
Therefore, the IU-Podemos coalition could deal another strong blow to the Socialists after the one they suffered in last December.
The opinion polls, conducted in May by the Institute for Advanced Social Studies and released on Thursday, June 16, put the ruling PP in the forefront with 29.2 percent - slightly above the 2.8.72 percent of the last elections, the IU-Podemos coalition in the second place with 25.6 percent and the Socialist PSOE in the third place with 21.2 percent - 0.8 percent down from the 22 percent of the last elections. (end) hnd.gb