Portuguese voters, anxious about an unemployment rate that has hit a 20-year high, were expected to return the Socialists to government in Sunday elections after the party campaigned on promises of big-ticket public works projects to help stimulate growth, according to AP. The center-left Socialists have blamed Portugal's economic woes on the global meltdown, and pledged to push through reforms to modernize outdated areas of the economy, such as the traditional garment and footwear industries, and provide more state aid for small companies. Prime Minister Jose Socrates, the Socialist leader, has vowed to continue his government's program of modernizing the country's social system to cut excessive spending and improve public services. The program has irritated many, however, especially trade unions. The main opposition Social Democratic Party have said the Socialists' public works plans would saddle future generations with debt. It wants to facilitate more private enterprise, including through tax breaks. Two recent opinion polls indicated voters prefer the Socialist option, with 38 percent to 30 percent for the Social Democrats. The Intercampus survey questioned 1,006 people by telephone Sept. 21-21, while the one by Lisbon's Catholic University was based on 4,367 votes placed secretly in ballot boxes Sept. 17-22. «I don't agree with everything they've done, but (Socrates) was brave and has changed things that others daren't touch,» said Filipa Pinto, a 47-year-old housewife voting in a Lisbon suburb. But neither of the main parties was expected to win more than half of the 230 parliamentary seats, meaning the election leader could try to rule as a minority government or seek a coalition with one of the smaller parties _ the conservative Popular Party, the Communist/Green coalition or the Left Bloc. Four hours before polls closed, about 43 percent of Portugal's 9.4 million eligible voters had cast ballots _ a lower turnout than the 50 percent that had voted by the same time in the 2005 ballot, the Interior Ministry said. The Socialist government in the past four years has imposed a series of widely contested reforms aimed at boosting the economy in Portugal, which has lagged behind others in the European Union despite receiving billions in EU development aid since joining the bloc in 1986. The reforms have included raising the civil service retirement age from 60 to 65 and introducing an evaluation system for schoolteachers. The Socialists are also credited with placing Portugal among the continent's pioneers in the development of clean energy and electric cars. Socrates has also put hundreds of thousands of computers in schools. Portugal remains western Europe's poorest country, however, with some of the lowest productivity and education levels, and about a third of workers taking home less than ¤600 (US$880) a month after tax. The country is shackled by labor laws introduced by radical leftist governments after the 1974 Carnation Revolution ended a four-decade dictatorship. At the same time, Portugal was hit hard by the global economic downturn, contracting 3.7 percent in this year's second quarter compared with the same period last year. Some 500,000 people _ just over 9 percent of the work force _ are unemployed. Social Democrat leader Manuela Ferreira Leite, who is seeking to become Portugal's first elected woman prime minister, also proposes reforms but she says they must go deeper and pursue broader consensus. Lisbon pensioner Manuel Vasques said the two main parties were short of ideas on how to improve the notoriously slow legal system and the bloated civil service. He said he was «sick of the squabbling» between those parties and intended to vote for a smaller fringe party. Before the 2005 Socialist win, Portugal had three governments in three years. Only one minority government has survived its full term since democracy was introduced 33 years ago.
