VILNIUS, Lithuania (AFP) — Lithuania's opposition Conservatives took the lead in a general election Sunday, beating the party of impeached president Rolandas Paksas and the ruling Social Democrats, exit polls showed.
However, the apparent lack of a clear victor was set to touch off a round of gruelling coalition talks, as often happens in the Baltic state.
The Conservatives won 21 percent of the vote, Paksas' populist Order and Justice Party around 14 percent and Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas' Social Democrats just over 13 percent, the poll by the RAIT institute for the Baltic News Service showed.
Next, with just over 11 percent, came the National Resurrection Party, founded by reality TV producer Arunas Valinskas in what he called a bid to restore faith in lawmakers. Parliament is one of the least popular institutions among Lithuania's 3.4 million people.
The populist Labour Party -- run by ex-minister Viktor Uspaskich, who has faced a fraud investigation -- won just under 11 percent.
Official results were due early Monday.
Kirkilas, who is Lithuania's 11th premier since independence from Moscow in 1991, put out feelers to potential allies after the poll figures.
"Democratic politicians can't say, 'I won't work with so-and-so, I can't form a coalition,' if such people are elected,'" he said, without naming any party.
"But obviously it's better if their manifestos are similar to ours.... At a time of crisis, we need social justice," he said.
Order and Justice and Labour's pledges include tax cuts, wage and pension hikes and efforts to battle rising prices, striking a chord with voters as an economic boom tails off in the face of rampant inflation and global woes.
The Social Democrats also promised to raise pensions and the minimum wage.
Conservative leader Andrius Kubilius, who campaigned for economic reform and family values, told AFP of "big doubts" about governing with the populists.
He said he was also wary of the Social Democrats, but sources indicated talks had begun on an anti-populist "rainbow coalition".
Kubilius was cautious after the polls were announced, saying, "We'll talk about this when the voters have clearly stated their view. That's our key guideline for forming a coalition."
Seventy lawmakers are elected by proportional representation from party lists and 71 in single-member constituencies where run-off rounds are due on October 26.
Valinskas said he did not see his party in coalition with the populists.
Paksas, meanwhile, told AFP he was aiming to work with anyone who had the support of the people.
"I don't want to talk to the Social Democrats and Conservatives, but if the voters give them enough seats, I'll have to," he said.
Ex-stunt pilot Paksas, a former prime minister, was elected president in 2003, but a year later became Europe's first head of state to be removed by impeachment after he was embroiled in a corruption scandal.
He has always denied any wrongdoing and is trying to overturn his impeachment, which bars him from any office requiring an oath.
The Social Democrats have ruled since 2001, building coalitions before and since the last elections in 2004.
Kirkilas, who won office in a 2006 reshuffle, led a five-party government, but barely controlled parliament.
None of his erstwhile liberal and farmers' party allies had kept their seats, polls indicated.
Turnout among Lithuania's 2.7 million voters was around 46 percent, according to election commission data.
The election was combined with a referendum on delaying the shutdown of a controversial, Soviet-era nuclear power station which provides 70 percent of Lithuania's electricity, but which Vilnius agreed to close by 2010 when it was admitted to the European Union in 2004.
The referendum, for which no results were immediately available, is not binding, but supporters say the goal is to push the EU to move the deadline to 2012, when new power links would be ready.
EU diplomats have said Brussels will not let Vilnius breach its membership treaty.
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