LISBON, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's ruling party, Partido Socialista (PS), will win the European elections with between 30.9 percent and 34.9 percent votes, according to the first poll released Sunday by Portuguese Catholic University for RTP (Portugal's national radio and television company).
While the PSD (Partido Social Democrata) has won between 21.5 percent and 25.8 percent of the vote and the Left Bloc (BE), the third political force, with between 8.5 percent and 11.5 percent of the vote.
The PAN (People-Animal-Nature) party will be able to elect an MEP, which will mean the first appearance in the European Parliament, said the poll.
The poll also placed abstention rate of the vote on Sunday for the European parliament at between 65 and 70 percent, while the ICS/ISCTE/GFK/Metris ballot for SIC predicts 66.5 percent to 70.5 percent abstention rate.
Five years ago, 33.91 percent of voters voted and abstention was 66.09 percent.
"These numbers are more or less in line with what happened five years ago, which only shows the following: you can not only speak of Europe during the period of the election campaign," said Portuguese Prime Minister and Secretary General of PS, Antonio Costa, commenting on the high abstention rate.
"It should be a deep reflection of reason surely for the political system, but also for the different media," he added.
