Lithuania's populist Labour Party set to top European election: exit poll

Lithuania's fledgling Labour Party, headed by a populist Russian-born millionaire parliamentarian, was set to dominate the country's first elections to the European Parliament, an exit poll indicated after voting closed Sunday.

Viktor Uspaskich's leftist party, which was set up only last year, was set to win 23 percent of the vote in the race for the 13 EU parliament seats, the poll by Transcom Worldwide said.

The ruling Social Democrats would win 12.7 percent followed by the Conservative Party on 11.5 percent and the Liberal Centre Union on 8.5 percent.

The Liberal Democrat party headed by Lithuania's impeached former head of state, Rolandas Paksas, would not perform well enough to gain any of the Lithuanian seats in the Parliament, the poll indicated.

The Transcom Worldwide poll interviewed 1,000 people who had voted by telephone on Sunday.

Official results are due to be released at midnight (2100 GMT).