Portuguese go to polls as country grapples with bailout.....

The centre-right opposition Social Democrats favourites to win after six years of Socialist rule.

Portuguese voters went to the polls on Sunday to elect a government which will lead the country through a period of deep austerity and recession after it received a 78-billion-euro bailout from the European Union and IMF.

The election will end a period of political and financial turmoil that started with the collapse of the Socialist government in March and led Lisbon to become the third country in the euro zone to seek a bailout after Greece and Ireland.

 The Portuguese, who face unemployment at its highest level in three decades, are expected to reject caretaker Prime Minister Jose Socrates in the snap ballot and turn to opposition centre-right Social Democrat Pedro Passos Coelho.