Lithuanians voted on Sunday in a first-round ballot to elect one of nine candidates to the presidency.

Polls predicted three candidates — former Finance Minister Ingrida Simonyte, economist Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis — have a realistic chance of replacing incumbent President Dalia Grybauskaite, who cannot stand for reelection after completing her two five-year terms.

The center-right Simonyte was popular with educated urban voters, while Skvernelis' populist politics appealed to rural voters. Nauseda, on the other hand, sought to appeal across the rich-poor divide in the former Soviet republic of 2.8 million people.

If no candidate wins an absolute majority following Sunday's poll, the two best-placed candidates will go into a runoff on May 26.

Lithuania simultaneously held two referendums: one on the introduction of dual citizenship to the country and another on the reduction of the number of parliamentary representatives.

Voter turnout tallied at 56.45% at the close of voting, according to the Central Elections Commission. Partial official results are expected to be announced during the night or early on Monday.

'Thirsty for social justice'

Lithuania is struggling with a population decline, partly owing to emigration to Western Europe by people seeking better living conditions. The Eastern European country's economic growth has improved, but poverty, income inequality and unemployment remain high.

"Citizens are thirsty for social justice and seek a candidate who can bridge existing social polarization," Donatas Puslys from the Vilnius Policy Analysis Institute told the AFP news agency.

All main contenders support EU and NATO memberships for Lithuania and are wary of neighboring Russia, particularly since Moscow's 2014 military intervention in Ukraine.

The president has the power to veto laws, set foreign and defense policy, and is involved in appointing judges, the chief prosecutor and the central bank chief. Around 2.5 million people are eligible to vote in the election.

Read more: Lithuania set to ban fake news from Russia

kw,shs/ng (AFP, dpa)

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> A man votes during presidental elections in Vilnius, Lithuania, 12 May 2019 | Valda Kalnina/EPA-EFE Close race ahead in Lithuania’s presidential election The two contenders in the run-off are both economists with center-right views.

The two candidates to become Lithuania's next president are locked in a tight race ahead of Sunday's election.

Former Finance Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and economist Gitanas Nausėda are competing to replace President Dalia Grybauskaitė, who cannot run again after two consecutive terms in office. Both are running as independents.

They were neck-and-neck in the first round on March 12, which saw Šimonytė win 31.31 percent of the vote, narrowly beating Nausėda to the top spot by 0.37 percentage points. The Lithuanian electoral commission said that 3,935 votes were all that stood between them — in a country of 2.5 million eligible voters.

But as neither candidate received 50 percent in the first vote, a second round will be held this Sunday, coinciding with the final day of voting in the European Parliament election. No opinion polls are expected to be published ahead of the vote.

Šimonytė, 44, a former MP, was finance minister during the global financial crisis when Lithuania’s GDP dropped by almost 15 percent.

In Lithuania's semi-presidential system, the main duties of the president are foreign and security policy, but domestic issues were the major campaign talking points.

Despite having the backing of the conservative Homeland Union-Christian Democrat party, she has drawn support from young, liberal voters for her progressive social policies, which include support for same-sex civil partnerships and working toward greater representation of women and ethnic minorities in politics and public life.

Homeland Union MP Rasa Juknevičienė, who served as defense minister when Šimonytė was finance minister, praised her as a straight-talking leader and said she would be "more clear and open" than other politicians.

Nausėda, 54, a former chief economist at SEB Bankas and lecturer, has no affiliation with any party. With little experience in politics, his campaign is focused on emphasizing his independence, suggesting he can cooperate with all parties in government.

“Being an independent candidate allows me to represent the whole of society,” he told POLITICO. “And Lithuania needs a president who can act as a unifier.” He added that he wanted to create a sense of “social solidarity."

Both candidates are economists with center-right views who want to unite a society they see as divided. They also emphasize the importance of long-term policy making and constructive political debate.

Margarita Šešelgytė, associate professor at Vilnius University’s department of international relations and political science, said the first round's results had been “quite surprising,” with two very similar candidates making it to the run-off.

“They are representing the same part of the electorate with very small ideological differences,” she said, while noting that Nausėda is considered the more conservative of the two candidates.

She added: “It might be a positive trend when people get tired of populists and choose those who rationalize their statements.”

Speaking after the first round, outgoing President Grybauskaitė said: “The election showed the maturity of Lithuanian society. People have values that cannot be affected by populism or blackmail."

In Lithuania's semi-presidential system, the main duties of the president are foreign and security policy, but domestic issues such as the economy and social welfare were the major campaign issues ahead of the vote.

“Neither [candidate] seems to have a flagship policy for foreign and security policy,” said Egle Murauskaite, a Lithuania-based senior researcher at the University of Maryland’s ICONS project, adding that neither was as well-connected in Brussels as Grybauskaitė had been when she started her first term as president.

Grybauskaitė served as European commissioner for budget before becoming Lithuania's first female president in 2009. </s> Lithuanians are voting today in a close presidential runoff between two centre-right rivals.

Former Finance Minister Ingrida Simonyte from the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats came first in the first round with 31.31 percent of the vote.

Political newcomer and economist Gitanas Nauseda gathered 30.94 percent in second place.

Nauseda had been an advisor to the president of SEB bank in Lithuania. He left his job to run for office as an independent candidate. He was endorsed in the last week by the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union.

Both candidates have an economic background and say they want to unite the country.

Dalia Grybauskaite, the popular outgoing President of Lithuania who will finish her ten years in office in July, said that the pair deserve to be in this second round run-off.

Something else Simonyte and Nauseda have in common is that they have said they won't go to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin unless Russia withdraws from Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Meanwhile, candidates from 16 political parties, coalition and public election committees have been competing for Lithuana’s 11 seats in the European Parliament.

Uppermost in voters minds has been anger over economic inequality - which is at one of the highest levels in the European Union - and corruption. </s> Some 2.5 million people have been summoned to vote at Lithuania's presidential elections on Sunday which will also include a referendum on the extension of dual nationality to some 800,000 people who left the country after 1990.

Current Lithuanian legislation only allows dual citizenship to those who left the country before 1990, which favored first and foremost the post-war refugees who fled the Soviet occupation.

The new norm would also allow dual citizenship to the Lithuanians who left the country after 1990 and would also extend to their children.

This affects, for example, those who left Lithuania between 2008 and 2009, as a result of the economic crisis, who are mostly young people of childbearing age.

A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) concluded in 2013 that emigration remains one of Lithuania's main national problems.

The referendum includes another question about a project to reduce the number of seats in Parliament.

Lithuania has a semi-presidential system in which the president has important foreign policy powers.

All of the nine candidates are pro-European and are in favor of remaining in NATO.

Current Prime Minister, Saulius Skvernelis (center-left), former finance minister and conservative Ingrida Simonyte and independent economist Gitanas Nauseda are leading polls.

In the last published poll, carried out in April, Simonyte would have 26.2 percent votes and Nauseda 24.6 percent.

In that survey Skvernelis only reached 16.6 percent of votes but he could benefit from the fact that another candidate, Naglis Puteikis, has called his supporters to vote for the current prime minister.

Some consider this move a de facto resignation to Puteikis' candidacy even though his name will still feature on the ballots.

Other aspiring candidates include philosopher Arvydas Juazatys, European Commissioner Vytenis Andriukatis, MEP Valentinas Mazuroniz and the representative of the Christian Families Alliance Valdemar Tomasevski.

Skvernelis and his coalition government have said they would reshuffle the government if they lose the presidential election.

If elected president, Skvernelis would no longer be able to continue in his role as prime minister.

Currently, the Government is formed by the Union of Greens and Farmers and by the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania although many of the current ministers are independent, including prime minister Skvernelis.

The new president will have to replace incumbent Dalia Grybauskaite who has already fulfilled the legal maximum of two five-year terms.

Grybauskaite was the first woman to reach the presidency of Lithuania and has been nicknamed the "Iron Lady", in memory of former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Grybauskaite has been a vociferous critic of former US President Barak Obama's policies on nuclear disarmament and has also lashed out against the lack of a viable plan for Brexit.

Internally she earned her label as a ruthless leader for frequently removing ministers from their positions.

If on Sunday a candidate obtains at least 50 percent of the votes, he will automatically be elected president.

If, as the polls indicate, no candidate reaches that percentage, a second round will be held on May 26 - the same day of the European elections - in which voters will have to choose between the two most popular candidates.

The issues that most concern voters are the economy and the social inequalities that persist despite the strong economic growth of recent years, according to the polls.

In any case, the president, as head of the state, only has limited legislative powers which include proposing a candidate for prime minister after parliamentary elections.

The president can also appoint and remove ministers, usually with the recommendation of the head of government. EFE-EPA </s> VILNIUS, Lithuania — Lithuanians were voting Sunday in the first round of a parliamentary election, with the governing Social Democrats facing challenges from conservatives and an agrarian party.

Lithuania, the biggest of the three Baltic countries, has struggled to stem emigration since regaining independence in the early 1990s and joining the European Union in 2004.

Both the Social Democrats, which have led a coalition government since 2012, and opposition parties have promised to raise living standards in the country of 2.9 million.

Many Lithuanians complain that prices have gone up since the country introduced the euro, the EU's common currency, in 2015, while salaries have not. The country was hit hard by the global economic meltdown and is just emerging from a recession.

Pre-election polls showed the Social Democrats in the lead, ahead of the agrarian Peasant and Green Party and the conservative Homeland Union-Christian Democrats in the race for parliament's 141 seats.

Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius leads the Social Democrats while the conservatives are led by Gabrielius Landsbergis, who at 34 is trying to become Europe's youngest prime minister. He is the grandson of Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania's first head of state after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

Lithuania remains highly suspicious of Russia and tense relations with Moscow are expected to continue regardless of the outcome of the election.

Polling stations will close at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT). A second round will be held on Oct. 23 in constituencies where no candidate wins a majority of votes.

No party is likely to get more than 20 support so coalition-building talks are sure to follow the election. </s> Lithuania is considered one of the most unequal countries in the European Union - one of many challenges the new president is set to tackle.

And that could be either the Independent Gitanas Nauseda or Ingrida Simonyte, a Christian Democrat.

Nauseda, a senior economist, won over 30% of votes in the first round of this weekend's presidential election. He promised to listen to those who feel abandoned by the elite in power across the small Baltic nation.

“I think we have very good chances to continue our work and probably we would stress the importance of, again, visit the municipalities because we wanted to visit all municipalities during the last few months,” Nauseda said.

Ingrida Simonyte is a former Minister of Finance and a member the Seimas, the Parliament - in an election plagued with anger over corruption and low wages, she insisted on the importance of listening to those away from the big cities.

“Regardless of the results we had in the first round, we still need to consider things that are important not only for big cities of this country but also for smaller towns and regions in order to have a successful country,” Simonyte said.

Saulius Skvernelis, who currently serves as prime minister, came third in the vote. He conceded defeat and promptly announced his resignation.

The run-off vote is set for May 26. </s> VILNIUS (Reuters) - Former central banker Gitanas Nauseda won Lithuania’s presidential election on Sunday after opponent Ingrida Simonyte conceded.

Nauseda, 55, had 72 percent of the vote, according to election authority results after 42 percent of the ballots were counted. Simonyte, 44, a former finance minister in a center-right government, stood at 28 percent.

“I was the independent candidate and my task in this election campaign was to unify Lithuanian people, no matter where they live, in small regions, villages, small cities or big cities,” Gitanas Nauseda told Reuters after declaring victory.

Nauseda, a household name from his role as chief economist at a top bank, has pledged to follow the tough stance set out by current President Dalia Grybauskaite, the Baltic nation’s “Iron Lady” and of the European Union’s most outspoken critics of the Kremlin.

The political outsider’s first challenge will be to resolve a government crisis. Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis pledged to quit on the presidential inauguration day after failing to advance from the first round of the presidential election.

The Lithuanian president has a wide semi-executive mandate and can veto laws passed by the parliament.

He also will have decisive role in shaping the country’s foreign and security policies as well as in appointing key officials such as the prime minister, judges, the chief prosecutor, and the central bank governor.

Five years after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine that sparked fears of further Russian aggression across Eastern Europe, the election campaign in Lithuania was dominated by voter anger over economic inequality and corruption.

Income inequality is among the highest in the European Union, second only to Bulgaria.

In an earlier interview with Reuters, Nauseda said he would use his presidential powers to help businesses expand in emerging markets, especially China, and request that the government increase revenues and better fund social services such as pensions.

Still very popular, Grybauskaite, 63, was not eligible to run again after serving two terms.

Nauseda’s election pledges include supporting Poland in its quest to have a permanent U.S. military base, dubbed “Fort Trump.” </s> The President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili has congratulated Gitanas Nauseda on his victory in the second round of the presidential elections in Lithuania. She published a complementary text on Twitter.

As the President notes, Georgia and Lithuania are strong partners and she expects to work together with the new president in order to “further develop the already strong ties between the two countries”

The second round of the Lieutenant presidential election was held between 55-year-old economist Gitanas Nauseda and former deputy chairman of the supervisory board of the National Bank of the country and former finance minister, Ingrida Simonyte.

Gitanas Nauseda gained 65.86% of the votes and will substitute Dalia Grybauskaite, one of the European Union’s most outspoken critics of Kremlin. </s> VILNIUS (Reuters) - Ingrida Simonyte and Gitanas Nauseda will face off in the second round in Lithuania’s presidential election after Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis conceded defeat in Sunday’s vote and said he would resign his post in July.

Simonyte, 44, a former finance minister in a center-right government, and Nauseda, 54, a former senior economist at a top bank, were favorites ahead of the election.

“I really believed I would get to the runoff, but the result shows that my expectations were too high,” Skvernelis told supporters in Vilnius.

Skvernelis said he would resign as prime minister on July 12, as he previously said he would if he did not reach the second round.

A runoff between the two top candidates will be held on May 26.
Lithuanian citizens also are heading to the polls to elect their future president in the second round of the latest presidential election.