Gitanas Nauseda, an economist, won the second round of the Lithuanian presidential election held on 26th May with 66.72% of the vote. He beat the former Finance Minister (2009-2012) Ingrida Simonyte, who had clinched a tight lead on 12th May in the first round (31.13% against 30.95% for Nauseda). Running as an independent, but with the support of the main opposition party, the Pro-Patria Union-Christian Democrats (TS-LKD), Ms Simonyte won 33.28% of the vote in the second round.

Turnout in this presidential election, which took place on the same day as the European elections totalled 53.44%, +6.07 points in comparison with the figure recorded in the second round of the previous presidential election on 25th May 2014.

Results of the Presidential election from 12th to 26th May 2019 in Lithuania

Turnout: 56.45% (1sr round) and 53.44% (2nd round),

Source : https://www.vrk.lt/2019-prezidento/rezultatai?srcUrl=/rinkimai/904/1/1546/rezultatai/lt/rezultataiPreRezultatai.html et https://www.vrk.lt/en/2019-prezidento/rezultatai?srcUrl=/rinkimai/904/2/1544/rezultatai/en/rezultataiPreLietuvoje.html

"I would like to thank all of those who voted for me and I promise that politics will now be different in Lithuania. Every person in our beautiful country deserves a better life," declared Gitanas Nauseda when the results were announced. "I was a truly independent candidate and my task during the electoral campaign was to unite Lithuanians, whether they live in isolated regions, in villages, in small or large towns," he added.

Aged 55, Gitanas Nauseda is an economics graduate from the University of Vilnius. He taught economics at the University of Mannheim in Germany, and then worked in various economic organisations (the Institute for Research into the Economy and Privatisation, the Lithuanian Competition Council, the Department for Financial Markets) before joining the Bank of Lithuania in 1994 (in the Department for the regulation of merchant banks, then as chief economist and advisor to the President of the AB Vilniaus Banks, before joining, the SEB Bankas in 2008 as a financial analyst, then chief economist, a post he occupied until 2018.

Because he covered the political playing field to a greater extent, Gitanas Nauseda managed to attract more votes than his rival, and notably the vote of the other candidates in the first round. The defeat of Ingrida Simonyte is synonymous to that of the conservative opposition, the Pro-Patria Union- Christian Democrats.

The new President of the Republic of Lithuania will be sworn in on 12th July next.