MADRID, March 9: Spain’s ruling Socialists won general elections on Sunday but may be just short of an absolute majority, exit polls showed, after a campaign focused on the slowing economy and rising immigration.

The polls on three Spanish television stations gave Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s Socialist Party between 163 and 176 seats in the 350-member parliament against 145 and 152 for the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP).

Official results are expected later on Sunday.

The result could force the Socialists -- who were 12 seats short of an absolute majority in the previous legislature -- to forge uncomfortable alliances with smaller regional nationalist parties to pass legislation.—AFP