LISBON, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Portugal's opposition Socialist Party scored a landslide victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections as the popularity of the coalition government has been eroded by staggering economic growth and repeated government adjustment, analysts said after the race.

    According to the results released by the national electoral agency, the Socialist Party won 45.04 percent of the vote and gained 119 seats in the 230-seat parliament. The central-right Social Democrats led by incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes got about 30 percent.

    Analysts blamed the voters' lack of confidence in the government on bouts of political instability, which erupted just four months after Santana Lopes took office last July and his predecessor Jose Manuel Durao Barroso left to head the European Commission.

    The crisis culminated in late November when Youth and Sports Minister Henrique Chaves resigned after only four days in office, accusing Lopes of being disloyal and untruthful.

    With the opposition demand and growing public doubt over the ruling ability of the government, Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio decided later to dissolve parliament and call the early vote.

    Behind the snap elections and prevailing discontent is also Portugal's economic slide since the Social Democrats were in powerin 2002.

    The Portuguese central bank forecast economic growth at less than 1.6 percent this year. Ahead of the parliamentary race, the latest official report showed the unemployment rate rose to 6.8 percent last year, the highest level over the past six years.

    Under the piling economic pressure, most Portuguese voters began to pin their hopes on the Socialists who have vowed during the campaign to boost economic growth to 3 percent, create 150,000jobs in four years, and improve people's living standards.

    The final result of the elections echoed recent opinion polls which showed the Socialists, led since September by pro-market Jose Socrates, the former environment minister, were likely to winan absolute majority in parliament, the first outright victory by any party in a decade.

    Under Portuguese constitution, President Sampaio will ask Socrates to form a new government, the Iberian nation's fourth in three years.

    But analysts argued that the winner is facing a tough job in the coming days to realize his promised growth and the settlement of ingrained problems against the backdrop of lagging world economic growth. Enditem