Presidential elections will be held in Lithuania on Sunday. At the same time, a referendum will be held on allowing dual citizenship, which is currently prohibited by the constitution in Lithuania.
To win in the first round you need to get 50% of the votes. In the 2014 and 2019 elections, it was not possible to elect a president in the first round.
The sites will be open from 7.00 am to 20.00 pm (Moscow time). 2.38 million people are eligible to participate in elections. The president is elected for a term of five years.
The current head of state, a neutral economist, has the best chance of winning, but not in the first round. Gitanas Nauseda, who turns 60 next week. According to the latest poll conducted in April, 29.1% of voters are ready to vote for him.
Nauseda’s main rival and former student is a 49-year-old economist. Ingrid Shimonite, who lost to him in the 2019 elections in the second round, according to the survey, getting 14%, although back in March this figure barely exceeded 10%. Simonyte, who was nominated by the ruling conservative Lithuanian party, the Christian Union-Lithuanian Democrats, voted early in the election and told reporters that she voted for “the candidate she knows, which is herself.”
Back in March, according to polls, Simonyte was ahead of a self-proclaimed candidate, a 48-year-old lawyer. Ignatius Vegele, Chairman of the Lithuanian Bar Council. In April, 12.7% of voters would have voted for him.
Almost all presidential candidates in Lithuania are expected to focus on closer interaction between the country and its EU and NATO allies and a further deterioration in relations with Russia.
However, this year an independent candidate collected the required number of signatures Eduardos Waitkus67-year-old hematologist, MD.
Among the other candidates are the Deputy Secretary General of NATO and the Minister of Defense of Lithuania, the first Lithuanian graduate of the American military academy West Point Gedrimas EglinskasDeputy Speaker of the Seimas, representative of the opposition Labor Party Andrew Mazouronis and who was the head of the Constitutional Court Dainius Jalimas.
At the same time as the first round of elections, a referendum on dual citizenship will be held; currently the constitution of Lithuania prohibits having citizenship of another state. A similar referendum was held in 2019, but was declared invalid as less than half of registered voters took part.
It is proposed to delete from Article 12 of the Constitution of Lithuania the clause “except for some cases provided by law, no one can be at the same time a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania and another state.” “
2024-05-11 23:15:00
#Presidential #elections #held #Lithuania #EADailly
