Portugal PM upbeat on re-election chances, poll shows close race

By Andrei Khalip LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's prime minister said he was confident his centre-right ruling coalition could win a parliament majority in the autumn election as a new poll showed it closing in on the main opposition Socialists. "It would be natural for our two parties to govern again together," Pedro Passos Coelho said in an interview published on Saturday in the Expresso newspaper. "My expectation is that a government with a parliament majority can come out of this election. And that is what I'll fight for." Passos Coelho, whose Social Democrats rule in a coalition with the smaller rightist CDS-PP party, said he expected voters to look for stability after Portugal's emergence from a debt crisis and recession under his austerity-minded government. He said the two parties would decide shortly on whether to run on the same ticket or separately. Portugal's election is expected in September or October. A survey of voting intentions by Eurosondagem pollsters published on Saturday showed that the coalition, with 35 percent support, was so close to the centre-left Socialists, on 37.5 percent, that they were inside the margin of error to make a statistical draw. In a Eurosondagem poll earlier this month the Socialists led by 4.5 percentage points. The new survey gave projections showing the ruling coalition, if it runs on one ticket, winning between 98 and 103 parliament seats versus 100 to 105 for the Socialists. If the two parties run separately they would likely win fewer seats. Despite anti-austerity talk by the Socialists, analysts expect them to continue budget consolidation if they win the election. Portugal has not seen the kind of mass support for a radical anti-bailout party as in Spain or Greece. The centre-right coalition government elected in 2011 has imposed painful austerity including tax hikes, wage and pension cuts that stoked the worst recession since the 1970s. But Lisbon exited the bailout last May and the economy is growing again. Some Portuguese analysts have raised the prospect of a centrist coalition between the Socialists and the centre-right Social Democrats after the election. Asked about such a possibility, Passos Coelho said: "I'm not closing any doors, but I'm not going to draw scenarios." Other parties represented in parliament were far behind the leaders in the Eurosondagem poll. The Communist-Greens alliance were on 9.6 percent and the Left Bloc on 4.2 percent. Eurosondagem surveyed 1,515 people between Feb 18 and 25. The margin of error was 2.52 percentage points. (Reporting By Andrei Khalip; Editing by Rosalind Russell)