Danish opposition set to win power

Rasmussen gamble on snap election looks set to backfire

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Denmark's centre-right opposition was poised on Tuesday to win a general election in a move that will end nine years of Social Democrat-led rule.

Denmark's TV2 projected in an exit poll of about 5,000 voters that opposition Liberal Party leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen and supporters would win 96 seats against 79 for the Social Democrat-led bloc of Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.

Fogh Rasmussen, an ex-economy and tax minister, has won support by promising to tighten anti-immigration laws against asylum seekers and refugees.

He wants to continue economic policies that have cut unemployment to a 25-year low.

If confirmed when the polls close, the result would be a stunning blow to Nyrup Rasmussen, who called the snap election in a gamble that voters would unite behind his leadership after the terror attacks on the United States.

RESOURCES CNN.dk

By 1400 GMT, five hours before polling stations closed, 42.1 percent of Denmark's four million electorate had voted.

This was 3.6 percent more than by the same time in the 1998 elections when final turnout was 85.9 percent.

The final Gallup poll before polls closed showed the Liberal-Conservative-led opposition would win 99 seats. The Social Democrats, their Radical Liberal coalition partner and leftist supporters would hold 77 seats.

"Opinion polls look very positive but I am not taking anything for granted," Fogh Rasmussen told Reuters.

"It does not look too good," Nyrup Rasmussen, the longest-serving European Union premier, said after voting.

Bitter campaign

If the polls are right, the Liberals will take over as the highly taxed country's biggest party from the Social Democrats for the first time since 1924 with 33 percent of the vote.

Under the slogan "Time For Change," Fogh Rasmussen, a former tax and economy minister, has gained voters' support on pledges of tighter rules for asylum seekers and refugees, a lid on taxes and a choice between private and public welfare.

"It will be healthy if we have a change now. You cannot have the same party in power for too long," voter Karskov Jensen told Reuters.

The two rivals, who are not related, broadly agree about major issues of economic and foreign policy, leaving an often bitter campaign to focus on immigration.

"We are facing a lot of unsolved problems with immigrants in Denmark," Fogh Rasmussen said.

"After the election, I want to calm down the debate and carry out a little tightening of the legislation."

Fogh Rasmussen said he would continue the economic policy of the Social Democrat-led government.

Denmark has healthy public surpluses, unemployment is at a 25-year low and the economy is still expanding despite the global slowdown.