Fortuyn's party is crushed as Dutch return to old order

The party founded by the murdered anti-immigration campaigner Pim Fortuyn suffered a crushing defeat last night in a cliff-hanger election that was destined to restore the dominance of the established parties in the Netherlands.

Eight months after the assassination of Mr Fortuyn, early results from yesterday's election showed the Christian Democrats (CDA) enjoying a narrow lead over the opposition Labour party (PvdA).

With 98 per cent of the votes counted, the Christian Democrats were on course to win 44 seats, two more than the PvdA on 42, with the VVD liberals on 28. The far-right party Mr Fortuyn founded, Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF), which went from nowhere to secure 26 seats last May, looked certain to retain just eight.

The party with the largest number of seats will be invited to form a government. With the race so tight, it was impossible to predict whether Jan Peter Balkenende, 46, the outgoing Christian Democrat premier, would retain his post.

Although the PvdA's campaign was fronted by Wouter Bos, 39, its telegenic leader, he has said he does not want the job of Prime Minister. If the PvdA wins the most seats, its candidate for Prime Minister will be the mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, 55, who would become the first Jewish premier of the Netherlands.

Given the closeness of the result, one strong possibility is that the two biggest parties will be forced to take part in a "grand coalition".

Last night's vote illustrates the remarkable revival of the PvdA, which was the biggest casualty of last May's elections when it was ejected from government after almost 10 years in office. But it also underlines the collapse of the LPF. Last May Mr Fortuyn's anti-immigration party won 1.6 million votes and became the second-biggest force in parliament on a wave of sympathy after its leader's death.

But the LPF, riven by constant feuding, proved impossible coalition partners and the government in which it was a vital component lasted just 87 days in office. With the established parties latching on to Mr Fortuyn's themes of law and order, immigration and security, the LPF has been confined to minor status.

The LPF is now out of the running as a serious force. Many of its former supporters seemed undecided about how to vote. Floating voters, said to make up as much as 30 per cent of the population, jammed an internet site in a late search for advice. By late afternoon, nearly three million were said to have logged on to www.stemwijzer.nl ("vote barometer"), on which party manifestos were outlined and poll trends compared.

It was also reported that a record of 3.2 million viewers watched the main six parties' leaders during their final round of combat on the television on Tuesday evening.

Voting began at 7.30am at 10,000 polling stations around the country and was reported to be brisk despite the cold weather and rainfall, torrential in some parts of the country. About 43 per cent of the electorate had voted by mid-afternoon, putting the country on course for participation similar to last May, when 79.1 per cent of the population turned out.

Scores of people stood in line in Maastricht and Zwolle to wait for the polls to open, although polling stations in the big cities recorded slower starts. With polling booths almost washed out in some parts, the Christian Democrats seemed to be benefiting from the weather, with the party faithful braving the elements. Gerrit Zalm, leader of the VVD, which was part of the last government, appeared to be wrestling with the computerised voting system in his polling booth. After several tries, it still wasn't recording his vote. Meanwhile, the Socialist Party leader, Jan Marijnissen, said: "All that work and campaigning and then it's all over in two seconds."

Television cameras trained on voters at the polling station near the former home of Mr Fortuyn in Rotterdam found there were still some disciples to be found. Almost one in three voters claimed they would be voting for his successors. But it was far from a nationwide trend.