Trying to lure back disaffected voters

All opinion polls published since the rail tragedy at Tempe, on the last night of February, that left 57 dead and exposed the shoddiness of the country's rail infrastructure and operations, concur that the ruling conservative New Democracy party, although still in the lead, has lost significant ground.

The polls also show no increase in support for the leftist main opposition SYRIZA party, which nonetheless has closed the gap from its main rival.

If the polls are correct, it is very likely that the winning party will not attain a parliamentary majority even after the second election, widely expected to take place in late spring or early summer; it was already a given that the electoral system in place would prevent such a majority in the first election, whose likely date was pushed back from mid-April to sometime in May by the rail disaster.

Government...