Lithuanians are going to the polls to decide on parliamentary elections as the opposition Social Democratic Party (SD) leads after the first round of voting.
On Sunday, polling stations open at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) and close at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT) for 2.9 million voters. Results are expected around midnight local time (2100 GMT). The country has a hybrid electoral system in which half of the parliament is elected by popular vote. The remainder is decided by district voting between the top two candidates.
In the first round of elections on 14 October, the Social Democratic Party won 20 percent of the vote, becoming the largest party ahead of the ruling Homeland Union party with 18 per cent and the anti-government Nemunas Dawn party with 15 per cent.
In case the Social Democrats manage to maintain their lead and form a government, Lithuania is expected to continue its foreign policy and significant defence budget, spending about 3 per cent of GDP on the armed forces, which, according to NATO estimates, puts it sixth among the alliance’s countries in terms of military spending.
Tough measures to combat COVID-19 during the pandemic, political scandals involving several key cabinet ministers and an influx of migrants from neighbouring Belarus have undermined the popularity of Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė’s ruling Homeland Union party, which came to power in 2020.
