Gitanas Nauseda, a 54-year-old economist and lecturer, will face off against Ingrida Simonyte, 44, of the conservative Homeland Union party – who served as minister of finance between 2009-12 – in the second round of balloting scheduled for May 26.
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Voting results from Lithuania's presidential election indicate a prominent economist and a former finance minister will advance to a runoff ballot later this month to pick a successor to incumbent Dalia Grybauskaite, AzVision.az reported citing AP.
With 1,631 of the country's 1,972 voting districts counted by early Monday, results provided by Lithuania's Central Electoral Commission show banker-turned-politician Gitanas Nauseda leading the nine-candidate field with 31.2% of the votes cast Sunday.
Lawmaker and former finance minister Ingrida Simonyte is second with 27.2%.
A candidate needed to win more than 50% of the votes to avoid a runoff.
Grybauskaite has served two maximum five-year terms as Lithuania's head of state since 2009.
