Election rivals ponder campaign tactics

The campaign for the May 21 parliamentary election will begin right after the Orthodox Easter, which falls on April 16 this year, and political parties are busy honing their media strategy, searching for catchy slogans and polling incessantly to gauge the mood of likely voters.

A common theme among the three largest parties - ruling conservative New Democracy, left-wing main opposition SYRIZA and the most likely third-place socialist PASOK - is courting the youth vote. The lowering of the voting age by a year - people born on or before December 31, 2006 will be eligible - means that the electoral rolls contain more than 430,000 new voters. Even if only 50-55% of them turn up, according to recent opinion firm estimates, it is still a sizable chunk of the total vote, which could help decide a seemingly tight contest.

SYRIZA has an advantage among youth; last time around...