Lithuania's presidential contest heads to runoff vote
PM Skvernelis said he would resign if fails to advance to runoff
13 May, 17:01Ingrida Simonyte, Lawmaker and former finance minister, was in second with 27.2%. In third was Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis at 22.2%, who told reporters during the vote count that he would resign in July if he failed to advance to a runoff. Support for the remaining six candidates was in single-digit numbers. A candidate needed to get more than 50% to avoid runoff on May 26, the same day that Lithuanians will vote for their European Parliament representatives. Preliminary voter turnout was 56%. 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. Along with picking a president, Lithuanians voted on a constitutional amendment to allow dual citizenship for hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians living abroad. Preliminary results indicated 70% of the voters supported allowing dual citizenship, the Baltic News Service, the region's main news service, reported. (ANSA-AP).