41.   Smaller Muslim parties have backed him, suggesting that religion could end up a deciding factor in a country that has long divided religion from state.

42.   Smaller parties such as the liberal Yabloko Party, the centrist Fatherland bloc and the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party might also meet the threshold test of national registration.

43.   Smaller parties won the remainder.

44.   Spring could also choose to enter a coalition with the largest opposition party, Fine Gael and other smaller parties, the Progressive Democrats and Democratic Left.

45.   That has resulted in a profusion of smaller parties representing special interests, particularly the Orthodox.

46.   That led smaller parties to complain of discrimination against them and to demand that the vote be put off.

47.   That means the PP may have to form a coalition or an informal working majority with one or more smaller parties.

48.   That would open the door for a frantic scramble to gain the support of smaller parties.

49.   That would open the way to intense jockeying among smaller parties.

50.   The balance went to smaller parties that had been in the opposition during the war.