Spain ruling party ahead but short of majority: polls

Spain's ruling Popular Party is tipped to win the largest share of the vote in general election but still fall short of a majority, meaning it would have to form alliances, final polls showed today.
The election is expected to be one of most closely-fought contests in modern Spanish history as anger over corruption scandals and a long economic crisis has fuelled the rise of newcomers that are threatening the traditional dominance of the Popular Party and the Socialists.
Five polls published today put support for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular Party at 25.3-29.9 percent, well below the 45 percent it obtained when it swept to power in November 2011.

That would give the party 105-128 seats in Spain's 350-seat parliament in yesterday's election, far short of the 176 seats needed for an absolute majority. It has 186 seats in the outgoing assembly.
Under Spanish voting rules no new polls can be published after midnight on today.
The polls put support for the main opposition Socialists at between 18.9-22 per cent, followed closely by two upstart parties, centre-right Ciudadanos, which is well positioned to emerge as kingmaker, and far-left Podemos.

Ciudadanos, led by 36-year-old photogenic lawyer Albert Rivera, has 18.1-19.6 per cent support according to the polls released by newspapers El Pais, El Mundo and La Razon, radio Cadena Ser and La Sexta TV.

Podemos, a close ally of Greece's ruling Syriza and led by pony-tailed university professor Pablo Iglesias, can likely count on 17-19.1 per cent support, according to the surveys.
With less a week to go until the elections, the polls show up to one in four voters remain undecided.
Rajoy (60) has made economic recovery one of the mainstays of his campaign after Spain in 2014 came out of five years of recession or zero-growth.
But many Spaniards are still not feeling the effects of this recovery and critics say the jobs that have been created are often precarious or badly paid.