Two women cast their ballot at a polling station in Vilnius, Lithuania on October 14, 2012.
Lithuania’s left-wing and populist opposition parties are expected to form a new coalition government after anti-austerity Lithuanians voted out the country’s conservative-led government.
The leaders of three opposition parties--Labour, the Social Democrats and Order and Justice parties-- held a meeting early on Monday after an exit poll showed that the voters decided to evict the country’s centre-right Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius in Sunday parliamentary election.
"We're creating a working group to start consultations on a coalition," Labour leader Viktor Uspaskich said after the meeting.
Figures published by the national elections commission indicated that with almost half of the ballots counted, the left-wing populist Labour party secured about 23 percent of the vote.
The Baltic state’s centre-left Social Democrats came in second with 20 percent of the vote, while the ruling conservatives received about 13 percent.
The incumbent government took office in 2008 amid global economic crisis and implemented a drastic austerity package in a bid to prevent the country’s bankruptcy.
The economic output of Lithuania, which is regarded as one of the European Union countries most harshly hit bythe crisis, fell by 15 percent and unemployment climbed.
Meanwhile, opposition parties pledged to ease the unpopular belt tightening measures by raising the minimum wage, creating jobs and making the rich pay more income tax.
SAB/MA
