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Greek poll shows Syriza leftists leading conservatives

ATHENS (Reuters) - Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' Syriza party would get 25 percent of the vote in a Sept. 20 snap election, versus 22 percent for the conservative New Democracy party, a University of Macedonia opinion poll showed on Friday. Tsipras abruptly resigned last week, days after clinching an 86 billion-euro (63 billion pounds) bailout package from European and International Monetary Fund lenders, hoping to crush a rebellion by far-left lawmakers and tighten his grip on power. The survey for Greek Skai TV showed that Popular Unity, a party formed last week by disaffected Syriza rebels who oppose the country's latest 86 billion-euro bailout, would be backed by 5 percent of those polled. Centrist party Potami ranked third along with the KKE communist party at 6 percent each, followed by far-right Golden Dawn at 5.5 percent. Syriza's former coalition ally, the right-wing Independent Greeks party would score 2 percent, below the 3 percent threshold to win seats in parliament. The poll said 14.5 percent of those surveyed were undecided. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; editing by Andrew Roche)