Lithuania's austerity government voted out As one of the European Union states most severely hit by the crisis, and one of the fastest to implement austerity, Lithuania is a bellwether for governments in Greece, Spain, Ireland and elsewhere, who are being forced to make similar swingeing cuts. The RAIT/BNS exit poll gave the biggest share of the vote, 19.8 per cent, to the Labour Party. The centre-left Social Democrats, likely coalition partner for Labour, were second with 17.8 per cent and the prime minister's Homeland Union was in third place on 16.7 per cent. Partial official results, based on the votes that have been counted so far, ranked the parties in the same order. The final shape of the next government will not be clear until talks take place on forming a coalition. It may come down to a second round, to take place in two weeks, which will settle races in local districts where no candidate had a clear lead. The prime minister said he would fight on into the run-off round, but it appeared unlikely he would be able to stay in power, after voters held him accountable for the tough decisions he took to drag Lithuania out of crisis. Before the financial crash in 2008, Lithuania was booming. Scandinavian banks provided cheap credit which let the country buy more than it sold and overheated the real estate market. When the crisis struck, the banks stopped lending. Economic output dropped by 15 per cent in 2009. Unemployment shot up. Thousands of young Lithuanians went abroad to seek work. Mr Kubilius, elected after the crisis began, cut pensions and public sector wages. To save money, only every third street lamp in Vilnius was lit, and fuel for police cars was rationed. This discipline helped the economy rebound. Gross domestic product grew 5.8 per cent last year, one of the fastest rates of any EU economy. The budget deficit has been tamed. Yet most Lithuanians feel worse off than they did four years ago. The opposition parties expected to form the governing coalition have said they will ease the pain of austerity by increasing the minimum wage, making the rich pay higher income tax than the poor and launching job creation schemes. Economists say the country's still-delicate finances dictate that whoever is in government will have to stick, for the most part, to the existing austerity programme.