LJUBLJANA: After 12 years of left liberals in power, a majority of voters in Slovenia's parliamentary elections on Sunday gave their support to the opposition conservative centre-right Slovene Democratic Party (SDS).

According to the unofficial results published by the State Electoral Committee, SDS emerged victorious with 29.13 per cent, while Premier Anton Rop's ruling centre-left Liberal Democrats (LDS) won 22.84 per cent.

SDS party leader Janez Jansa is now poised to unseat Rop and LDS's 12-year rule. "A much needed political change has come to Slovenia, and we have the programme and the people to carry out that change," Jansa told POP TV Monday.

Jansa, former defence minister in the 1990s, is now expected to form a coalition government with his allies, New Slovenia or NSi, which won 8.87 per cent and the Slovene People's Party (SLS), which won 6.95 per cent.

Jansa said on Monday his alliance was looking for further coalition agreements to secure an outright majority, but that he might need to seek the support of Zmago Jelincic's ultra nationalist National Party that gained 6 per cent of the vote.

However, public opinion is opposed to a potential alliance with Jelincic, fearing his anti-foreigner sentiments and territorial aspirations towards Croatia, could cause tensions that would not be welcomed in Brussels.

According to the constitution, President Janez Drnovsek has to appoint the premier-designate after consulting all parties represented in parliament but the procedure could take days.

The tiny Alpine republic is the first former Yugoslav republic to become a member of both Nato and the European Union. It has a healthy economy and stable democracy. Despite all that, LDS lost elections after being in power for more than a decade.

"The main reason for the LDS defeat is that they lost their leader, Janez Drnovsek, who created the party," said Peter Jancic, journalist with the daily Vecer newspaper.

The last elections in 2000 were won by LDS, at the time headed by Drnovsek. In 2002 Drnovsek decided to run for president, later resigning as premier to take the new job, and naming LDS party colleague Rop as prime minister.

Jancic and political analysts agree that Rop did not have the charisma of Drnovsek who was among the politicians who led Slovenia to independence from Yugoslavia. -dpa