Lithuanian Presidential Elections: Incumbent President and Prime Minister Advance to Second Round

On Sunday, May 12, Lithuania held its presidential elections. According to the vote count in the majority of polling stations, the incumbent President Gitanas Nausėda and the current Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė have advanced to the second round, as reported by LRT.

In the first round of voting, Gitanas Nausėda received 44.54% of the votes. However, this was insufficient for a victory in the first round, as a candidate needs to garner 50% plus one vote from the participating voters.

Ingrida Šimonytė secured 19.94% of the votes, securing her place in the second round. Lawyer Ignas Vėgėlė came in third with 12.47% of the votes.

"I thank those who entrusted me after a short term as the head of the government, considering the challenges and problems we had to face during this time. My main goal at this stage was probably to make it to the second round, and I believe that goal has been achieved," Šimonytė told reporters in Vilnius after the announcement of the voting results.

The turnout for the presidential elections on Sunday was 59.4% of eligible voters, the highest turnout in Lithuania since 1997. The second round of voting is scheduled to take place in two weeks.

Simultaneously with the presidential elections, Lithuania held a referendum on changes to the constitution regarding dual citizenship. The referendum proposed removing the sentence from the constitution that currently hinders Lithuanian residents from acquiring dual citizenship. The current provision of Lithuania's basic law states, "Except in cases provided for by law, no one can be a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania and another country."

1,011,014 individuals, or 73.9% of those participating in the referendum, voted in favour of changing this provision to allow Lithuanian citizens to freely acquire citizenship of other countries. However, this was insufficient to pass the corresponding decision. For the amendment to be adopted, at least half of the country's eligible voters needed to vote for it. There were a total of 2,385,234 individuals on this year's voter rolls, so to approve the changes, 1,192,617 votes were required. Therefore, the amendment fell short by 181,603 votes.