Greece voters face tough choices at polls

ATHENS — Last month, Greeks went to the polls in anger. On Sunday, they return in fear.In an election widely viewed as a referendum on the country's membership in the Eurozone, voters here are choosing between the guaranteed pain of continued austerity and the uncertain danger of trying to break free of those brutal cuts.The first option, as protest parties such as the far-left Syriza group argue, would mire Greece in deep recession for years, if not decades. The second, as the conservative New Democracy party warns, would mean the "kiss of death" that forces Greece's European peers to push the country out of the shared currency.Polls taken in recent weeks show the two sides neck and neck, with New Democracy possibly ahead by a whisker. But more than a third of the country's 9.5 million voters remain undecided.

"It's like the country is suffering from bipolar mood swings," said a leading Greek pollster, speaking on condition of anonymity because of a ban imposed two weeks before voting. "One day is entirely different from the next, and it's bound to continue like this down to the wire."New Democracy appears to have consolidated a marginal lead over the upstart Syriza, increasing its chances of emerging as the biggest vote-getter once again.But it wasn't able to capitalize on that lead in last month's balloting, and the failure to form a government piled a political crisis on top of an acute five-year economic recession.

The uncertain result ripped the social fabric of the country, leaving the near-insolvent nation gripped by instability and further spooking international investors and markets.European creditors have since warned that any failure by Athens to follow through on the harsh terms of a multibillion-dollar bailout could imperil the country's membership in the Eurozone, the group of nations that share the euro currency.The economic contagion continued to threaten other European countries Thursday.Spain'sborrowing rate briefly hit the 7% mark that many analysts describe as unsustainable over the long term for the government to finance its operations. When the borrowing rates stayed at such levels in Greece, Portugal and Ireland, those countries were forced to apply for international bailouts.

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