Votes are being counted in Lithuania after voters went to the polls on Sunday for the second round of presidential elections that pitted incumbent Gitanas Nausėda against current Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė.
Results were expected in the next few hours. The prediction is that Nausėda will retain her position with a clear victory over Šimonytė.
Lithuania, which borders the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea and close Russian ally Belarus, saw just under half of its roughly 2.4 million eligible voters cast ballots before polling stations closed. voting at 8pm (1700 GMT), election officials said.
This means that turnout was significantly lower than in the first round on May 12, when Nausėda won the largest share of votes by a wide margin, but not enough to achieve the absolute majority needed to win definitively.
The two politicians also ran for president in 2019.
Lithuanians hope the 60-year-old economist, who has become known as a staunch supporter of Ukraine, will win again for a second five-year term.
Šimonytė, also a trained economist, has been prime minister since 2020. On many issues – especially foreign and security policy – the two politicians share almost identical positions.
They differ on issues such as abortion rights and the recognition of same-sex partnerships. Šimonytė, 49, takes a more liberal stance than Nausėda in the predominantly Catholic country.
The presidency is the most important position in the Baltic country, and the position represents the country abroad, including at EU summits, and is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
