Portuguese head to polls as right, left seen almost evenly matched

The issues dominating the campaign in western Europe's poorest country include the housing crisis unleashed by soaring rents, low wages, sagging healthcare and corruption, seen by many as endemic to the mainstream parties. The early election, four months after Prime Minister Antonio Costa's sudden resignation amid a graft investigation, again pits against each other the two centrist parties that have alternated in power since the end of a dictatorship five decades ago. The ruling Socialist Party (PS) could attempt a replay of their old alliances with the Left Bloc and the Communists that allowed them to govern between 2015 and 2019, if the combined left gets more than 115 seats in the 230-seat parliament.