By Andrew Jay Rosenbaum and Magda Panoutsopoulou
ATHENS
Syriza party has dropped in opinion polls ahead of the upcoming September 20 election, as the left-wing Greek party loses two key members.
Creditors expressed concerns Wednesday that the election could lead to delays in bailout funds disbursements.
Syriza, the party that led the former ruling coalition until outgoing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned on August 20, is forecast to win 26 percent of the vote, down from previous polls which gave the party more than 30 percent, according to a poll published by Pulse for Action 24 television channel Tuesday.
But now Syriza is just one point ahead of the conservative New Democracy party, which has 25 percent of the vote.
About 25 percent of Greeks would like to see a coalition government with Syriza and New Democracy. Syriza's leaders have stated that they will not seek to form such a coalition, but New Democracy's Evangelos Meimarakis has not excluded the possibility.
Syriza used votes from the opposition parties to pass critical bailout measures while it was in power. Should Syriza not achieve a majority in parliament after the elections, it will have to find some alliances with other parties if the remaining bailout legislation is to pass.
Syriza has also been weakened by the loss of two well-known party members: Nadia Valavani, former deputy finance minister, and Zoi Konstantopoulou, former parliament speaker.
Konstantopoulou has been an outspoken critic of Tsipras, and of the bailout agreement. She has left Syriza to join the Popular Unity party, which opposes the bailout. Popular Unity, however, has only gotten about 4 percent support in the polls.
"I will ally as an independent, as a collaborator, with the Popular Unity party which constitutes the first shield from the storm which broke since the elections were called," Konstantopoulou told a meeting of her supporters on Tuesday.
Valavani had been a close ally of Tsipras, but she broke with him when he signed the bailout agreement. Valavani has also opted to join Popular Unity.
The Greek government has agreed with its European creditors to a three-year, €86 billion ($95.5 billion) bailout, on the condition that the government enacts a series of far-reaching economic reforms.
The director of the International Monetary Fund’s European Department, Poul Thomsen, on Wednesday expressed concerns about the strong chance of a delay in the bailout program, if no party wins a majority in the Greek parliament, according to a report in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
