UPDATE 1-Spain's Socialists, far-right seen gaining support ahead of April election -El Pais

Support for Spain's Socialists and the far-right Vox party is seen rising ahead of an April 28 election in a poll of polls published by newspaper El Pais late on Tuesday, though the ruling party still fell short of a parliamentary majority.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's party was seen winning 27.3 percent of the vote, a rise since he announced the snap election on Feb. 15. That would give the Socialists 113 seats, far short of the 176 needed to secure an outright parliamentary majority. With the far-left platform Podemos seeing support drop to 13.8 percent, or 36 seats, Spain's leftists would need to win support from smaller, regional parties to form a majority government, the poll figures showed.

The main conservative opposition, the People's Party (PP), saw its support drop to 20.0 percent, or roughly 75 seats. Backing for new far-right party Vox rose sharply to 12.1 percent, which would give them 38 seats, while support for centre-right Ciudadanos fell to 16.3 percent, or 58 seats. That would mean a coalition of the three right-wing parties would still fall short of a majority in parliament.

Anti-immigrant Vox currently holds no seats in the Spanish parliament, but took a role in the formation of a regional government in Andalusia after an election in January. The results are an average, calculated by El Pais, of dozens opinion polls. (Reporting by Belen Carreno; Writing by Paul Day; Editing by Ingrid Melander and Catherine Evans)

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