New Coalition?

With all 550,098 votes tallied shortly after midnight Monday, Reform had 27.8 percent of the vote, against 26.1 percent for the Center Party, the election commission said.

That translated into 31 seats for Ansip's party and 29 for the Center Party, led by Economics and Communications Minister Edgar Savisaar.

Although the two groupings are allies in the outgoing government, they had waged a bitter election campaign in which each assailed the policies and promises of the other.

On Sunday, even before Reform's victory was sealed, Ansip hinted he might ditch the Center Party in favor of the conservative Pro Patria - Res Publica Union, which finished third, with 17.9 percent, giving it 19 seats.

"The strong support to two big governing parties shows that people are happy with the policies of this government," Ansip told Estonian Radio, after 99 percent of the vote had been counted. But the strong support for Pro Patria-Res Publica Union shows that people are also scared of the Center Party's lavish promises" of more state spending, the outgoing prime minister added.

"In terms of party programs, we have more in common with the Pro Patria-Res Publica Union than with the Center Party," he told reporters, adding that he considered the Center Party's pledge to hike public sector wages "frightening."

"The people who voted for the main opposition party (Pro Patria - Res Publica) indicated that they are not prepared to let our economic success fall to pieces. The Center Party's election pledges would do just that," Ansip said.

Turnout higher than expected

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has said he will give the right to form the next government to the party leader who gains most seats, and Ansip said he would launch coalition-building talks "immediately."

Should he choose to ally with Pro Patria - Res Publica, he would also need a junior party to give his coalition a working majority in the 101-seat parliament.

The Social Democrats won 10.6 percent of the vote, or 10 seats; and the People's Union, which was the junior partner in the outgoing coalition, won six seats, with 7.1 percent of the vote. The only other party of the 11 that fielded candidates in the election to get into parliament was political newcomer, the Green Party, which won 7.1 percent for six seats.

Turnout was better than expected in the vote, with nearly 60 percent of the 940,000 eligible voters casting their ballots, election officials said. More than 550,000 people, or 58.5 percent of the electorate, braved dismal winter weather to vote on Sunday and during advance voting held over three days last week, the commission said.

Of those who took part in advance voting, 30,275 chose their parliamentary representatives with a few mouse-clicks as they took part in the world's first e-vote from their home or office computer.

The success of the main ruling parties was driven by the strong economy they have overseen: since the last elections, held in 2003 -- a year before Estonia joined the European Union -- the economy has surged ahead to become one of the strongest in the EU, growing by 11.5 percent last year.

This country of 1.34 million people has also consolidated its position as a global technology leader.

Neither of the two parties that ran a campaign based on the grievances of Estonia's large Russian minority made it into the legislature.

The Constitution Party, which had pledged to categorically oppose plans to move a controversial monument to Soviet Red Army soldiers from its prominent place in central Tallinn, won a mere one percent of the vote, while the Russian Party in Estonia earned just 0.2 percent.