UPDATE 1-Spain's left-wing parties could win majority in April 28 election - poll

A majority is within reach for Spain's left-wing parties in the April 28 election while right-wing parties look set to fall short, an official poll indicated on Tuesday.

Spain is gearing up for one of its most bitterly fought parliamentary elections in decades, and surveys have been suggesting for weeks that the result is too close to call. March's edition of the poll by the state-run Centre for Sociological Studies (CIS), the last before the election, found that the ruling Socialists (PSOE), together with the left-wing Podemos and its allies, could win up to 181 of parliament's 350 seats in the best-case scenario.

However, CIS's worst-case scenario gave the left-wing parties only 157 seats in total. The election is expected to mark a watershed in Spain's democratic history as a far-right party looks set to win seats for the first time in four decades.

The CIS poll sees that party, Vox, gaining 29 to 37 seats. The conservative People's Party (PP) is set to win would win 66-76 seats and the centre-right Ciudadanos 42-51, CIS found.

This means that the poll does not see the three right-wing parties winning a majority of seats, even under the most optimistic scenario. The poll also indicated that one in four voters had not yet decided who they would vote for.

The poll surveyed 16,194 people from March 1-18, after Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the snap election. (Reporting by Paul Day, Ingrid Melander, Belen Carreno)

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