Rightists, disgraced ex-president lead Lithuania poll

By Patrick Lannin and Nerijus Adomaitis

VILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuania's main center-right opposition party was set to win the first round of a Lithuanian parliamentary vote on Sunday, with a disgraced ex-president making a strong comeback, an exit poll showed.

The vote took place amid anger over double digit inflation and fears the once high flying economy would slide during the global financial crisis. A newly assertive Russia has also been a focus of concern for some in this former Soviet state.

The vote seemed likely to lead to tough coalition talks that could pit the center-right and nationalist Homeland Union against the party of former president Rolandas Paksas, Europe's only leader to be impeached and removed from office.

The poll, by the RAIT survey agency for Baltic news agency BNS and broadcast on Lithuanian state television, showed that the Homeland Union would win 21 percent of votes for party lists, a better showing than in recent opinion polls.

"The result looks quite good, bearing in mind most of the polls failed to predict such support," Homeland leader Andrius Kubilius told Reuters. He backs tax cuts to boost the economy.

The Sunday election was a first round vote for party lists, which gives 70 seats in the 141-seat parliament, and for single-mandate consituencies, which gives 71 seats.

Analysts say parliament's final configuration will only be known after the October 26 run off for the single mandate areas.

The exit poll showed that Paksas's Law and Order Party could get 14 percent of party list seats in the 141-seat parliament.

Paksas, a stunt pilot, was impeached and removed from office in 2004 for favoring a Russian businessman who was his aide, leading to allegations of being pro-Russian, which he denies.

He and Russian-born millionaire Viktor Uspaskich, whom the exit poll showed in fifth place, are also criticized as populists, but look set to be in a future coalition. Uspaskich's nickname is "the Gherkin King" after one of his businesses.

The ruling Social Democrats were set to take third place in the vote, the poll showed, with analysts saying they have suffered from the fears of a slowdown.

They were closely followed by a party formed only a few months ago by a popular TV talent show host.

Lithuania also held a referendum on Sunday to keep open its aging Soviet-era nuclear power plant, in defiance of its commitment to the European Union to close it at the end of 2009.

However, a preliminary figure showed 46.4 percent of eligible voters turned out in the election, which would make the referendum invalid as it needed at least 50 percent plus one.

The next government has to keep Lithuania on track to enter the euro zone, which analysts say could be in 2011 or 2012.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Patrick Lannin; editing by Ralph Boulton)