2nd LD Writethru: Denmark holds parliamentary elections

Danes went to the polls on Thursday to decide which candidates and political parties can enter the parliament.

At 9:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT), a total of 1,389 polling stations opened in city halls, schools and sports centers throughout the country as more than 4 million registered voters began to cast their ballots. The voters will elect 179 members of the unicameral parliament, or the Folketing in Danish.

This year's election will see a tight race between incumbent Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and former prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen.

Thorning-Schmidt, who has headed the ruling center-left red bloc after winning the 2011 election, is under huge pressure to retain power, as the center-right blue bloc led by Rasmussen is still taking a narrow lead in the latest polls.

Topics like economy, welfare and immigration have been dominating the election campaigns since Thorning-Schmidt called the early election on May 27.

At a polling station in Copenhagen's Noerrebro district, Hans Jeppesen, a 65-year-old teacher who is also a pensioner, said he voted for the ruling Social Democratic Party as he did in almost every elections since the 1960s.

"I believe that the welfare is important for both our happiness and the competitiveness of Denmark. A country with safe, happy and healthy citizens is more capable of being innovative and internationally competitive," Hans told Xinhua.

However, not all voters are in favor of the incumbent government. Henning Oestergaard, 58, said he voted for Rasmussen-led Liberals instead of the Social Democratic Party as he did four years ago.

"I believe that Rasmussen is the right man to get this country back on track," said Oestergaard, who is an engineer. "I believe a right-wing government will be better at keeping its words and to keep a fair but strict policy towards foreigners in our country ."

Thorning-Schmidt ousted a right-wing coalition led by Rasmussen four years ago and became the first female prime minister in Denmark. But she saw her support plummet as the incumbent government implemented austerity measures and controversial structural reforms.

However, her approach in the early stages of the campaign with tough talk on immigration and Denmark's improving economic outlook have helped the ruling coalition gain rising support in recent weeks.

According to the latest opinion poll made by Epinion for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, the center-right coalition is expected to get 88 seats in the Parliament, against 87 seats to the center-left coalition.

A total of 799 candidates have been registered for this year's election. Of them, 250 are women, 1.9 percent down from the 267 in the 2011 election, according to official statistics.

The average age of the registered candidates is 47 for men and 45.2 for women, both slightly up from the 45.9 and 43.9 respectively in the 2011 election.

Of the 799 candidates, 332 are standing for re-election while 467 are new. The numbers for the 2011 election was 347 and 457 respectively, according to the ministry.

Danish citizens who are permanent residents in Denmark, Greenland or the Faroe Islands and at least 18 years old are entitled to vote.

A high turnout of over 80 percent is expected for Thursday's vote. In the 2011 parliamentary election, 87.74 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots.

"Voting is important to me. I want to exercise my right and duty to choose who to take care of my interests in Parliament," said 43-year-old ecologist Anders Bo Petersen at the Islands Brygge polling station.

"When I cast my vote it gives me a feeling of being a part of something bigger, a feeling of belonging to the community that we call our country," the retired teacher Hans said.

The polling stations will close at 8:00 p.m. (1800 GMT), and preliminary results are expected to come out at midnight Thursday. The official results of the election will be released Friday. Endit