The opposition Social Democratic Party has won the first round of parliamentary elections in Lithuania, Lithuanian media reported, AP News reports.
After 100 per cent of votes were counted in the first round on Monday, the Social Democrats won 18 of the first 70 seats in the 141-seat Seimas, one seat ahead of Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė’s ruling Homeland Union party.
In the second round of voting, to be held on October 27, single-mandate constituencies will vote for the two candidates leading in the first round.
Šimonytė’s government took office in 2020 and has made economic gains. However, strict COVID-19 measures and an influx of migrants have cast a shadow over her cabinet. Šimonytė was particularly criticised for harsh measures during the pandemic, with many complaining that her government did not do enough to help companies during the lockdown and others saying thousands of people did not have proper access to health services.
The head of the Social Democratic Party, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, said she and the centre-left Democratic Union, which won eight seats, would try to form a coalition and support each other’s candidates in the second round. She was also due to meet with the leadership of another centre-left party, the Farmers and Greens Union, which won six seats.
Nemuno Aušra, the newly registered party of right-wing politician Remigijus Žemaitaitis, who was impeached earlier this year for anti-Semitic remarks, won 14 seats. The Social Democrats ruled out the possibility of an alliance with Zemaitis’ party. The last party to win seats was the Liberal Union, which won seven seats.
The election results continue the historical trend of voters changing their minds every four years. Margarita Šešelgytė, the director at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius, told The Associated Press:
The so-called pendulum principle makes society shift from left to right and so on. Not a single time since the early 1990s have Lithuanians voted in two consecutive elections for the same party to run the country.
Analysts say the shift to the left will not significantly change foreign policy in Lithuania, an EU and NATO member that borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west and Belarus, a Moscow ally, to the east.
According to official figures, turnout was 52.1 per cent, up from 47.2 per cent in 2020.
