Voters punished several national governments battling the global economic downturn and domestic crises in a European Parliament election, exit polls showed on the final day of voting today.
Although centrist parties are expected to dominate the 736-seat assembly, which shapes many of the European Union's laws, the early exit polls showed the opposition defeating governing parties in Latvia, Greece and Bulgaria.
The parliament's initial estimate of the turnout was a record low of 43.01 per cent.
The polls put the ruling parties in France and Germany ahead of the opposition, but indicated German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives would suffer some losses in what an initial estimate said would be a record low turnout.
Opinion polls before the election suggested governments in Britain, Spain and Hungary faced defeat and showed fringe parties, including far-right forces, would benefit if the turnout was low among the 375 million electorate.
Although there are no formal or direct consequences for governing parties defeated in the election, they could face increased pressure for changes of policy or personnel.
Defeats across the board for governing parties and a poor turnout would point to a lack of public confidence in how the EU institutions and EU member states have tackled the economic crisis and open the way for fringe parties to make gains.
"We hope that there will be a stand, that the people will retain their common sense and their sense of balance and we will not see extreme parties making any great gains," former Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga told a debate in Brussels.
Nineteen EU member states voted on the fourth and final day of the election to the parliament, which has the final say in the appointment of top EU leaders and the Union's budget. The eight others had already voted.
Parliament was due to start releasing results at 9pm.
Reuters
