Opinion poll shows major shift in Spanish political allegiances MADRID, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- An opinion poll published in the Spanish newspaper 'El Pais' on Sunday showed that if a general election were held now in the country, a left wing political party formed just eight months ago would win the highest share of the votes, while the governing Peoples Party (PP) would drop to third place. Podemos, literally translated as 'We Can', would win a theoretical election with 27.7 of the vote, this would be nowhere near enough to win an overall majority, but would mean a seismic shift in traditional political alliances to the detriment of Spain's major parties. The poll was carried out by the company 'Metroscope' during the past week and is clearly influenced by the effects of 'Operation Punic', an anti-corruption operation which has led to over 50 arrests. Although members of the Socialist (PSOE) party were among those arrested, the majority, including four majors from the Madrid Autonomous Community, the President of the Deputation of Leon and the former number two in the Madrid region, Francisco Granados, are members of the PP. This has had a dramatic effect on voting intentions, coming on top of the ongoing investigations, such as the 'Barcenas Case' into the illegal financing of the party and the 'Gurtel Case' a wide-ranging corruption scandal in which PP members have also been implicated. If an election were to be called now in Spain, the party led by Mariano Rajoy would poll just 20.7 percent of the vote; almost 10 percent less than the 30.2 percent the October Metroscope survey gave them and 23.9 percent down on the 44.6 of the vote which gave the party victory in the November 2011 general election. The PSOE has also suffered as a result of corruption scandals and sees its percent of the vote fall from 30.9 percent a month ago to 26.2 percent, which is below the 28.7 percent polled in November 2011. With the two major parties suffering, Podemos is the big winner with the party led by lawyer Pablo Iglesias, predicted to take 27.7 percent of votes cast, twice the 13.8 percent predicted a month ago, due mainly to the stance the party has taken against corruption in the so-called ruling elite. The huge rise in support for Iglesias' party comes despite many of those questioned admitted doubts over Podemos' economic policy, which has yet to be clearly defined, and other policies which they believe to be unrealistic. Podemos won five seats in May elections for the European Parliament and the party's rise is expected to be confirmed in a further poll published by the Center for Sociological Studies on Monday, although given that this poll was taken before the news of Operation Punic broke, the damage to the PP and PSOE is likely to be less severe.