Reykjavik - Voting began Saturday in the general election in Iceland, one of the country's most ravaged by the global economic meltdown amid survey indications of a strong shift to the left in the country's electorate. The current interim government of social democratic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir is favourite to retain power, in coalition with their Green party partners.

The Morgunbladid newspaper published a Gallup poll showing that more than 57 per cent of those surveyed aimed to support the social democrats and Greens. Two years ago, the two parties won only 41 per cent of the vote.

The previous grand coalition government under Geir Haarde, 58, resigned in January, after Iceland's economy imploded under the pressure of the collapse of three of its over-stretched banks, and mass street protests.

Haarde did not run for re-election, amid survey findings that his Conservative party would lose more than one-quarter of its support amid the country's financial meltdown. The conservatives had previously won 30 per cent.

Political observers were expecting a lower turnout among the 277,000 eligible voters on Saturday, and that possibly an unusually higher number of ballots would be returned blank in a form of protest against the established parties.

Sigurdardottir, 66, became the world's first openly lesbian head of government when she took over as caretaker prime minister.

The financial collapse has forced the tiny north Atlantic country of 300,000 inhabitants to consider applying to join the EU.

The collapse of the country's banking sector led to a plunge in the currency and an emergency bail-out from the International Monetary Fund.(dpa)