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BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - The centre-left party of former Slovak prime minister Robert Fico looks on course to win an outright parliamentary majority, giving him a mandate to deliver on pledges to tax the rich and cut the budget deficit, early election results showed on Sunday.

Results from 67 percent of districts showed Smer took 46.2 percent of the vote on Saturday, which would give it 86 out of the 150 seats and displace a centre-right cabinet that collapsed in October after a liberal party refused to back a plan to beef up a fund to help crisis-hit euro zone countries.

A government led by the pro-European, 47-year-old lawyer would please Slovakia's euro zone partners, who were upset by the outgoing coalition's refusal to contribute to the first bailout of Greece and the delaying of the rescue fund.

"I predict that Smer will have won the vote ... and will receive the mandate from the president to form a government," Fico said after exit polls earlier showed him far ahead of all rivals.

Fico's strong showing would knock his reformist rival Mikulas Dzurinda's centre-right SDKU out of power after the SDKU-led coalition fell apart after less than two years.

Damaged by allegations of graft, Dzurinda's party would win just 5.5 percent, according to the partial results, a third of what it won in the last election in 2010. But it was likely to avoid being knocked out of parliament altogether.

Another centre-right party, the Christian Democrats (KDH), had 8.8 percent in the partial results.

The partial results may be somewhat skewed in Fico's favour because larger urban districts, where Fico's Smer party has traditionally been weaker, tend to be counted later. But his lead seemed wide enough to secure an unprecedented victory for any single party in Slovakia's 19-year independent history.

Final results were expected to be released later on Sunday.

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Slovak left looks set for sweeping election victory