Poll puts Zapatero ahead

The Spanish Prime Minister is set to clinch re-election on Sunday by a narrow margin, according to the results of a poll commissioned by The Times.
The survey, conducted by the Spanish polling company Sigma Dos, shows José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s Socialist Party beating its conservative rivals by 3.8 percentage points. That result would give the Socialists enough seats in Parliament to form a government but place them short of an absolute majority.
Spanish media are barred from publishing opinion polls in the five days leading up to the election but political parties and business groups continue to commission them. The results are traded widely among political and business elites but until now have been kept from ordinary Spaniards.