Lithuanians voted in a presidential election on Sunday at a time when Russian features on the battlefield in Ukraine are fuelling higher fears about Moscow’s intentions, significantly within the strategically necessary Baltic area.
Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda seems heading in the right direction to safe a second time period following the nation’s first spherical of presidential elections.
In a rerun of the 2019 elections, the president will face off towards Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte within the nation’s second spherical of presidential elections.
Nauseda narrowly missed the possibility to be re-elected within the first spherical, receiving about 45% of the vote. There are eight candidates working in all, making it tough for him or some other candidate to muster the 50% of the votes wanted to win outright on Sunday. A runoff vote shall be held on 26 Could.
Polls closed at 8 pm native time. Preliminary voter turnout was 59.4%, greater than within the earlier election in 2019, the Central Electoral Fee stated.
The president’s principal duties in Lithuania’s political system are overseeing overseas and safety coverage, and appearing because the supreme commander of the armed forces. That provides significance to the place within the comparatively small nation given its strategic location on NATO’s japanese flank as tensions rise between Russia and the West over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea is sandwiched between Lithuania to the north and east, and Poland to the south. There may be nice concern in Lithuania, in addition to neighbouring Latvia and Estonia, about Russian troops’ newest features in north-eastern Ukraine.
All three Baltic states declared independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union and took a decided westward course, becoming a member of each the European Union and NATO.
Nauseda is a reasonable conservative who turns 60 per week after Sunday’s election. Certainly one of his principal challengers is Ingrida Simonyte, 49, the present prime minister and former finance minister, whom he beat in a runoff in 2019 with 66.5% of the votes.
One other contender is Ignas Vegele, who gained recognition through the COVID-19 pandemic by opposing restrictions and vaccines.
Nauseda’s first time period in workplace ends in the beginning of July.
