Lithuania will have a new election with the same rivals as Gitanas Nauseda and Ingrida Simonyte get into the presidential election runoff, just as they did five years ago, according to preliminary data from the country’s Central Electoral Commission.

Nauseda received 46 percent of the votes in the first round of voting on Sunday, and 16 percent voted for Simonyte.

“Yes, I wanted to win in the first round, but apparently we’ll have the runoff. I am ready to make a strong push for victory in the runoff and I think I will succeed in doing so,” Nauseda told reporters on Monday night.

“My key goal was probably to make it to the runoff and I think I have achieved it,” Simonyte told reporters.

In 2019, the two rivals were more evenly positioned as they both got around 31 percent of the votes in the first round of voting.

This year, eight politicians were running for president,

According to the CEC, lawyer Ignas Vegele got 12 percent followed by Remigijus Zemaitaitis, leader of the Dawn of the Nemunas party, (10 percent), medical doctor Eduardas Vaitkus (7 percent), lawyer Dainius Zalimas (3 percent), Labor Party leader MP Andrius Mazuronis (1.5 percent), and ex-Defense Vice Minister Giedrimas Jeglinskas (1.3 percent).

Source: BNS

(Reproduction of BNS information in mass media and other websites without written consent of BNS is prohibited.)