Danes set to elect first female PM

Polls have opened in Denmark, where voters are expected to elect their first female prime minister and end 10 years of centre-right rule.

Surveys released on election day showed Helle Thorning-Schmidt's left-leaning alliance kept its lead over incumbent prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen's governing coalition.

For the past decade Denmark has been government by a minority centre-right government relying on the parliamentary backing of the anti-immigration Danish People's Party.

They have pushed through a series of pro-market reforms and sharply tightened Denmark's asylum laws.

A power shift is not likely to yield major changes, but Ms Thorning-Schmidt wants to slap taxes on banks and wealthy Danes and ease some of the austerity cuts planned by the current government.