Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte admitted defeat in the last round of the Baltic country’s presidential elections.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda declared victory in the final round of the Baltic country’s presidential elections as partial results showed him far ahead in the two-way race against Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte.
Ballots from nearly 90 percent of polling stations on Sunday showed Nauseda, 60, winning about three-quarters of the vote, followed by Simonyte, 49, from the center-right ruling Union of the Fatherland party.
Simonyte admitted defeat in comments to reporters and congratulated Nauseda.
This is the second time that Nauseda and Simonyte compete in the second round of the presidential elections. In 2019, Nauseda beat Simonyte with 66% of the votes.
As president, Nauseda has a semi-executive role, which includes heading the armed forces, presiding over the national defense and security policy body and representing the country at NATO and European Union summits.
The former senior economist at Swedish banking group SEB, who is not affiliated with any party, won the first round of elections on May 12 with 44 percent of the vote, less than the 50 percent he needed for an outright victory.
Simonyte was the only woman among eight candidates in the first round and came second with 20 percent.
Both Nauseda and Simonyte support increasing defense spending to at least 3% of Lithuania’s gross domestic product, from the 2.75% planned for this year, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Like other Baltic nations, Lithuania fears it could be Moscow’s next target. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he has no intention of attacking any NATO country.
The difficult relationship between Nauseda and Simonyte also gained prominence in foreign policy debates, particularly Lithuania’s relations with China.
Bilateral ties became strained in 2021 when Vilnius allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy under the island’s name, a departure from the common diplomatic practice of using the name of the capital, Taipei, to avoid angering Beijing.
China, which considers self-ruled Taiwan a part of its territory, has downgraded diplomatic relations with Vilnius and blocked its exports, prompting some Lithuanian politicians to call for the reestablishment of relations for the sake of the economy.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
