RIGA (AFP) - Latvians voted in a general election, with exit polls showing centre-right parties who guided the country into the European Union likely to have come out on top.

When polling stations around the country closed at 10:00 pm (1900 GMT), after 15 hours of voting, an exit poll conducted jointly by the Baltic News Service (BNS) and LTV public television put the conservative People's Party in the lead with 19.8 percent, ahead of the leftwing Harmony Centre party at 15.3 percent and the centre-right New Era at 14.6 percent.

But another poll, conducted by LETA news agency, gave New Era, which campaigned on an anti-corruption and prosperity-for-all ticket, in the lead with 18.97 percent, followed closely by the Peoples Party with 18.49 percent and their coalition partner, the Union of Greens and Farmers, with 16.99 percent.

LETA put Harmony Centre in fourth place, with nearly 11 percent of the vote.

Although the polls disagreed, analysts concurred that they pointed to a continuity in Latvian politics, which despite being marred by in-fighting and instability in the 15 years since independence, have always been grounded in the centre-right and economic liberalism.

That constant in politics has helped to fuel the most rapid economic growth in the European Union, which Latvia joined in 2004.

"There is no doubt that the next coalition will be formed by centre-right parties and it will be very similar, if not the same, to what we have now," Aigars Freimanis, director of research company Latvijas Fakti, told AFP.

"All indications and exit polls show that the political landscape in Latvia will remain largely unchanged," he said.

The current governing coalition is made up of the People's Party, the Union of Greens and Farmers, and the liberal First Party of Latvia, which, according to both exit polls on Saturday won 10.7 percent of the vote, which it contested in an electoral bloc with the Latvia's Way party.

New Era was the biggest party in the outgoing parliament, and a member of the ruling coalition until last April, when it quit after accusing Latvia's Way of corruption.

"It will be a centre-right coalition, similar to what we have already," political scientist Ivars Indans told AFP.

But if Harmony Centre confirms the high score it showed in the BNS/LTV poll, "they could be invited to join, or at least support, the new government," marking the first time a party close to Latvia's large Russian minority is included in the ruling coalition, he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Russians who live in Latvia are unable to vote, because they do not have Latvian citizenship.

The provisional results were expected at about 1:30 am, the election commission said.

New Era called on the parties that did best in the election to start talks on forming a new government and named European lawmaker Vladis Dombrovskis as its candidate for prime minister.

"It would be logical if the core of the new government consisted of those parties that have won the most voter support," New Era leader, former prime minister Einars Repse, said on Latvian Television.

Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis, a member of the People's Party, told AFP it was "too early to judge" what the make-up of the next government should be.

"Let's wait for the results from all the parties," he said.

Asked if he would be prepared to continue in the post of prime minister, Kalvitis said: "Yes, I am ready to continue."

New Era fell out with its one-time coalition partners after it quit the government because Kalvitis refused to choose between it and the First Party.

Exit polls showed that seven of the 19 parties that contested the election exceeded the five-percent threshold needed to win a seat in parliament.

Turnout fell sharply compared with the four previous general elections held in the Baltic state since independence from the Soviet Union.

The election commission said 60.51 percent of the 1.45 million eligible voters had turned out to cast their ballots.

In 1991, the first election held after independence from Moscow, turnout was 89.9 percent, in 1995 and 1998 it was 71.9 percent, and in 2002 it was 71.4 percent, data supplied by the election commission showed.

"People are disillusioned with politics, they are apathetic," Freimanis of research company Latvijas Fakti said.

"Emigration has also negatively affected the results," he said.

Between 50,000 and 100,000 Latvians have left the country of 2.3 million to take jobs in other EU countries since Latvia joined the bloc, as its poorest member. But the expatriates are still on the electoral roll in their home country.

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