Slovenian leader refuses to concede after voters swing left
Ljubljana - Prime Minister Janez Jansa may seek a recount after Slovenia's centre-left opposition took a one-seat lead in parliamentary elections, media reports said Monday.
With absentee ballots from Sunday's voting still being tallied, the Social Democrats appeared poised to take power in the European Union nation of 2 million sandwiched between the Alps and the Adriatic.
But Jansa, a combative conservative who has led the prospering former Yugoslav republic since 2004, said he hoped that support from 46,000 eligible voters abroad might overturn the left's 12,000-vote lead.
"We can't talk about a relative winner yet," local media quoted him as saying.
Citing 18,000 invalid ballots, Jansa also said his Slovenian Democratic Party may challenge the election result and demand a recount.
Social Democrat Borut Pahor, the country's likely next prime minister, insisted that a majority of Slovenes had voted for change. He appeared unruffled by Jansa's refusal to concede defeat and ruled out forming a "grand coalition" with his adversary.
"We'll see what happens," said Pahor, 44, currently a European Parliament member.
Jansa ran largely on his stewardship of Slovenia's strong economic growth and portrayed himself as a fighter against ex-communist influence.
He was weakened by high inflation ever since Slovenia switched to the euro last year - a theme picked up by Pahor, who has also pledged to ease the country's right-left polarization.
Nearly complete results showed Pahor's party winning 30.5 per cent of the vote and 29 seats in the 90-member Slovenian parliament, compared to 29.3 per cent and 28 seats for Jansa's, which actually gained slightly compared to 2004.
The Social Democrats can count on two smaller left-leaning parties as coalition partners, but will need a third ally to form a government.
Jansa would likely have a harder time even if his party overturns the trend, because one of his coalition parties, Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk's New Slovenia, dropped out of parliament in Sunday's voting.
The nationalist Slovenian National Party won 5.5 per cent, but it has been shunned by mainstream parties and is seen as an unlikely partner for any government (dpa)