VILNIUS, Lithuania — A prominent economist and a former finance minister held the top two spots in returns from Lithuania‘s presidential election Sunday and appeared headed to a runoff ballot later this month to choose a successor to incumbent Dalia Grybauskaite.
With 1,631 of the country’s 1,972 voting districts counted early Monday, results provided by Lithuania’s Central Electoral Commission showed Gitanas Nauseda, a banker-turned-politician, leading the nine-candidate field with 31.2 per cent of the votes.
Ingrida Simonyte, Lawmaker and former finance minister, was in second with 27.2 per cent.
A candidate needed to get more than 50 per cent to avoid a May 26 runoff.
Preliminary voter turnout was 56 per cent.
Grybauskaite has served the maximum two 5-year terms as Lithuania’s head of state since 2009, a Baltic country bordering Russia that is a member of the European Union and NATO.
Grybauskaite has been a strong critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and campaigned on stopping corruption and improving Lithuania’s economy.