Leftist opposition wins tight Slovenian election

Sep 22, 2008, 0:05 GMT

Ljubljana - Slovenia's left-leaning opposition was headed for victory in parliamentary elections Sunday, nearly complete results showed, after a hard-fought campaign centred on the economy and corruption allegations.

The main opposition Social Democrats were polling 30.6 per cent, compared to 29.2 per cent for Prime Minister Janez Jansa's Slovenian Democratic Party, election officials said with 95 per cent of the votes counted.

Opposition leader Borut Pahor, 44, a political scientist and European Parliament member, can count on two leftist parties to help build a governing coalition in the 90-seat Parliament. However, he would need a third partner for a majority.

Analysts said that Pahor would likely be cautious about further privatization of state-controlled companies. He pledged to avoid major policy shifts if President Danilo Turk taps him to form the next government.

'I will pursue a measured and responsible policy, with no room for radical manoeuvres,' said Pahor, who is seen as less politically polarizing than Jansa.

Jansa has led Slovenia, a European Union nation sandwiched between the Alps and the Adriatic, for the last four years.

Final results may take until Thursday as absentee ballots still need to be tallied.

Jansa, 50, ran on his leadership of one of Eastern Europe's most successful economies, a nation of 2 million people that joined the EU and NATO in 2004 and switched to the euro in 2007.

But he was dogged by inflation since Slovenia joined the eurozone - and by claims in a Finnish television report that he received part of 21 million euros (30 million dollars) that arms maker Patria allegedly paid in bribes to win a Slovenian defence contract.

Jansa strongly denied the allegations and portrayed it as a smear attempt by former communists. He dubbed the election campaign the dirtiest since Slovenia won independence from the former Yugoslavia in a 10-day war in 1991.

Pahor played on Slovenians' constant grumbling about rising prices, notably for food.

Slovenia's export-driven economy expanded by 5.5 per cent year-on- year in the second quarter. But inflation, while cooling, stood at 6 per cent in August, the eurozone's highest.

In Sunday's voting, Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk's New Slovenia party dropped from 9 per cent in 2004 to below the 4 per cent threshold for winning seats in Parliament, early returns showed.

Pahor could count on two smaller opposition parties - Zares, emerging as the third-strongest force in Parliament with nearly 10 per cent of the vote, and the Liberal Democrats of the late president Janez Drnovsek. The centrist Pensioners' Party could complete his coalition.

Jansa won 29.1 per cent in 2004 parliamentary elections and led a coalition with three smaller conservative parties. A former journalist, prominent dissident in former Yugoslavia and a key figure in organizing Slovenia's war of independence, he has had an occasionally stormy tenure.

In September 2007, more than 400 journalists signed a petition accusing him of government interference in the media. His democratic credentials challenged just before Slovenia chaired the EU in the first half of 2008, Jansa insisted that the media in Slovenia are free, but the complaints drew international attention.