Voters were making their way to the polls Saturday in the Baltic state of Latvia to choose a new parliament for a five-year term.
More than 1,000 polling stations have been set up across the country to allow around 1.5 million eligible voters from Latvia's total population of 2.2 million to vote. Polls opened at 0500 GMT on Saturday and are due to close at 1700 GMT, with preliminary results expected in the early hours of Sunday morning, DPA reported.
The Central Election Commission said 1.5 per cent of voters had cast their ballots during the first hour. Officials hoped for turnout to exceed the 61 per cent of registered voters who voted in the 2005 parliamentary elections.
President Valdis Zatlers, who is not up for election, urged Latvians to vote even if the political choices offered to them were "not ideal."
"On this day our fate is in our own hands," Zatlers said.
Opinion polls predicted a close race between incumbent Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis' Vienotiba bloc and the opposition Saskanas Centrs party with each attracting around 30 per cent of the vote.
Smaller parties were likely to hold the balance of power. Parties need to attract at least 5 per cent of the vote in order to win representation in the 100-seat unicameral parliament.
Key issues include the Latvian economy, which contracted 18 per cent in 2009, and how to handle the country's 7.5-billion-euro (10-billion-dollar) international bailout loan.