A television exit poll in Portugal says the opposition Social Democrats have unseated the ruling Socialists in the troubled country's parliamentary election.

Voters went to the polls in an early election following the resignation of Prime Minister Jose Socrates after the old parliament rejected his economic reform plans.

The country was forced to turn to the European Union and International Monetary Fund for a $110 billion bailout.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, a former Portuguese prime minister, said this is Portugal's most important election in decades because of the country's shaky economic situation.

Portugal has become the third troubled EU economy after Greece and Ireland to need a bailout.