The head of Lithuania's main centre-right opposition party claimed victory in a parliamentary election yesterday after a second round of voting.
"This is absolutely a victory," Homeland Union-Christian Democrat Party leader Andrius Kubilius said. "I see a very good chance to form a working government for the cause of change," he later added to reporters, saying his party had won a further 20 seats in the second round, adding to 18 in the first stage of voting two weeks ago.
This made his party the biggest in 141-seat Parliament and it would lead coalition talks to form the next government.
Lithuanians voted yesterday in the second round of a parliamentary election which could end seven years of Social Democrat rule and usher in a centre-right coalition.
The next government of the Baltic state, a former Soviet republic which is now a member of the European Union, will have to deal with the impact of the global financial crisis and double-digit inflation.
It must also keep a tight rein on the budget deficit as the country eyes eventual adoption of the euro.
Yesterday's second round will decide 68 seats of the 141-seat Parliament in run-offs for single mandate districts.
The opposition conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats is expected to win about 40 seats in all, but will be short of a parliamentary majority and face tough coalition talks, analysts said.
"We expect the election results to be such that we shall form a coalition with other centre-right and liberal parties," Andrius Kubilius, the Homeland Union leader who was Prime Minister in 1999-2000, told journalists before casting his vote.
The conservatives are set to woo two smaller centre-right groups - the opposition Liberal Movement and the Liberal and Centre Union, a member of the outgoing coalition.
Another potential partner is the National Resurrection Party, led by a popular television talent show host, which came a surprise second after the first round.
Many voters said they wanted a more decent and effective government.
"I have lost confidence (in the current government) because it just keeps promising everything... It has been promising for a long time to build a new power plant, but that remains just talk," said Zilvinas Katinas, 23, a law student.
The new government will have to deal with growing dependence on Russian energy resources after a planned shutdown of the Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear power plant at the end of next year.
Victory for the Homeland Union would put an end to the rule of Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas's centre-left Social Democrats, who came to power in mid-2001.
They came third in the first round and their chances of holding power shrank further as their junior coalition partners, the Farmers Popular Party and the New Union, failed to enter Parliament.