Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio on Friday announced the dissolution of parliament and called snap legislative elections for February 20, a poll that could be a rout for the ruling Social Democrats led by Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopez.

Santana's center-right Social Democratic Party are well behind the opposition Socialists in polls less than five months after taking office.

Left-wing Sampaio made the announcement on Friday at the end ofa series of mandatory consultations with political parties and the State Council, which favored the dissolution of the Assembly of the Republic (parliament) and snap elections to define a new majority in the Legislative branch.

Sampaio is apparently trying to end the open crises emerged in Santana's brief tenure, which is marked by the bitter resignation of Sports, Youth and Rehabilitation Minister, Henrique Chaves, last November, forcing down ratings in opinion polls and triggering a negative outlook from the Standard & Poor's credit rating agency.

Santana, then Lisbon mayor and number two in the Social Democrats, took over as premier when Jose Manuel Barroso left Portuguese politics in July to head the European Commission.

The president, elected in 2001, said the parliamentary majority of last July had guaranteed, following the resignation of Barroso, he continuity of a "stable, consistent and trustworthy government" so the departure of the then prime minister was not "reason enough" to dissolve parliament.

But since his taking office, Santana loosened an austerity program that Barroso had designed to close a budget gap that breached euro zone limits in 2001. His 2005 budget prompted Standard & Poor's to downgrade its outlook for Portugal. Ensuing political uncertainty has gripped Portugal, the poorest country in western Europe.

Sampaio said he hoped the winners in the elections know how to face "with greater determination" the present budget crisis of the country.

He insisted that the measures taken are "the best thing for the country" as Portugal is now in an "unbearable situation."

Source: Xinhua