The Lithuanian presidential election was extended to the second round

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency quoting “NTV”, the presidential election in Lithuania was extended to the second round after the counting of votes.

In this way, the future president of Lithuania will be determined in the second round became. In the first round of the presidential election, incumbent Gitanas Navseda won 44 percent of the vote after almost all votes had been counted – thus missing out on an absolute majority.

The Election Commission announced that Ingrida Simonete, the Prime Minister of this country, came second with 19% of the votes. The two candidates will now compete in an election duel on May 26 for the highest government post in the EU-NATO country, which neighbors Russia’s Baltic Sea region of Kaliningrad and Russia’s close ally Belarus.

These two candidates had already competed against each other in the presidential elections five years ago. Navsda made a name for itself as a firm supporter of Ukraine in the war against Russia. Polls before this election showed him in the lead.

On the night of the election, this independent politician emphasized his desire to win in the first round. Now he will try hard to win the second round of the elections to ensure the second five-year term of the presidency. This 59-year-old candidate announced: I think I will succeed.

Nausda has been at the head of the leadership of this largest Baltic country since 2019. The focus of the candidates’ campaign in this election was Russia’s war against Ukraine and its impact on national security as well as social policy issues. A total of seven candidates competed with Navseda.

About 2.4 million people were eligible to vote in this election. According to the report of the Election Commission in Vilnius, the turnout in this election was more than 59 percent, which was the highest turnout in the first round of presidential elections since 1997. At the same time as this vote, a referendum on the introduction of dual citizenship was also held.

Compared to the Federal President of Germany, the president in this Baltic country has powers It is wider in foreign and defense policy. He is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Lithuania is likely to be of interest to the German military in the coming years. In response to the changing security situation in Europe and Russia’s aggressive behavior, the German federal government has agreed to permanently deploy a combat-ready brigade of up to 5,000 German soldiers to the Baltic country.

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