Presidential elections were held in Lithuania on 12 May 2019, with a second round held on 26 May 2019. Due to a constitutional limit of two terms in office, incumbent president

Dalia Grybauskaitė Dalia Grybauskaitė (; born 1 March 1956) is a Lithuanian politician who served as the eighth President of Lithuania from 2009 until 2019. She is the first woman to hold the position and in 2014 she became the first President of Lithuania to be ...

was unable to run, having won the 2009 and 2014 elections. As no candidate obtained 50% of the vote in the first round, a second round was held between the top two candidates,

Ingrida Šimonytė Ingrida Šimonytė (; born 15 November 1974) is a Lithuanian politician and economist who is the Prime Minister of Lithuania since 11 December 2020. She has been a Member of the Seimas of Antakalnis constituency since 2016 and was Minister of F ...

and

Gitanas Nausėda Gitanas Nausėda (born 19 May 1964) is a Lithuanian economist, politician and banker who is serving as the ninth and incumbent President of Lithuania since 2019. He was previously director of monetary policy at the Bank of Lithuania from 1996 un ...

. Nausėda was elected with 67% of the vote and was inaugurated as President of Lithuania on 12 July.

Electoral system

The elections were held using the two-round system. To win in the first round, a candidate required an absolute majority of the vote and either voter turnout to be above 50% or for their vote share to be equivalent to at least one-third of the number of registered voters. If no candidate wins in the first round, a second round is required, featuring the top two candidates.

Candidates

Approved candidates

* Naglis Puteikis, MP, Chairman of the

Lithuanian Centre Party The People and Justice Union (centrists, nationalists) ( lt, Tautos ir teisingumo sąjunga (centristai, tautininkai)), formerly known as the Lithuanian Centre Party ( lt, Lietuvos Centro partija) is an agrarian-centrist political party in Lithuan ...

. * Valentinas Mazuronis, MEP, former Minister of Environment. Independent. *

, economist, lecturer. Independent. *

Arvydas Juozaitis Arvydas Juozaitis (born 18 April 1956 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian writer, philosopher, politician, cultural worker and former swimmer who won a bronze medal in the 100 meter breaststroke at the 1976 Summer Olympics. In 1988, he was a member o ...

, philosopher, former Olympic athlete. Independent. *

, MP, former deputy chairwoman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania (2013–2016), former Minister of Finance (2009–2012). Independent, nominated by the

Homeland Union The Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats ( lt, Tėvynės sąjunga Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai, TS–LKD), also known colloquially simply as the Conservatives, is a centre-right political party in Lithuania. It has 18,000 mem ...

. * Vytenis Andriukaitis, Lithuania's European Commissioner, former Minister of Health (2012–2014), and a co-signatory to the 1990 Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. Nominated by the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania. *

Saulius Skvernelis Saulius Skvernelis (born 23 July 1970) is a Lithuanian politician who served as prime minister of Lithuania between 2016 and 2020. He is currently a member of the Seimas. Previously he served as police commissioner, and was Minister of the Inte ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

since 2016, former Minister of Interior (2014–2016) Independent, nominated by the

Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union The Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union ( lt, Lietuvos valstiečių ir žaliųjų sąjunga, LVŽS)The party is also known as Lithuanian Peasant and Greens Union. is a green-conservative and agrarian political party in Lithuania led by Ram ...

and the Social Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania. * Mindaugas Puidokas, MP. Independent. * Valdemar Tomaševski, MEP, Chairman of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania.

Declined candidates

* Žygimantas Pavilionis, MP, former Ambassador of Lithuania to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

* Vygaudas Ušackas, former EU Ambassador to Russia. Lost TS-LKD primaries. * Aušra Maldeikienė, MP * Visvaldas Matijošaitis, Mayor of Kaunas *Vitas Gudiškis, former President of Ice Hockey Federation of Lithuania * Petras Auštrevičius, MEP *Alfonsas Butė, Deputy Chairman of the . *Kazimieras Juraitis, * Petras Gražulis, MP

Opinion polls

First round

Results

The first round was narrowly won by former Finance Minister

, with economist

finishing second. As neither candidate passed the threshold of 50% of votes cast, a run-off was be held between Šimonytė and Nausėda on 26 May. Nausėda won the second round with over 66% of the vote. After finishing a distant third, Prime Minister

announced his intention to resign on election night, with his resignation coming into effect on 12 July. Later, it was revealed that Skvernelis will continue his tenure as the Prime Minister until the next election of the Parliament.

References

{{Lithuanian elections Lithuania Presidential Lithuania Presidential elections in Lithuania