Lithuania polls

European Union budget chief Dalia Grybauskaite appears to have won a resounding victory in Lithuania's presidential election, according to an exit poll.

Grybauskaite received 67.9 percent of the first-round vote, far outstripping Social Democrat candidate Algirdas Butkevicius who bagged just 11.8 percent. The exit poll found that the five other candidates lagged far behind Butkevicius.

Under Lithuanian law, half of the country's 2.7 million registered voters must have voted for a presidential candidate who obtains over 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off ballot against the second-ranked rival. First figures from the country's electoral commission showed that turnout was still well short of that hurdle.

Pulling the country "out of the political and economic shadows"

Lithuanians have gone to the polls at a time of deep economic recession and disenchantment with politicians. 53-year old Grybauskaite is seen as a tough-talking, competent leader who has remained outside party politics with its scandals and corruption allegations.

Grybauskaite has vowed to pull her country of 3.34 million "out of the political and economic shadows."

She has been a member of the European Commission, the EU executive arm, since Lithuania joined the bloc in 2004. In her role as a European Commission member, Grybauskaite has frequently chastised Vilnius for having squandered the country's economic boom and failure to prepare for the deepening recession.

"My conscience as a citizen wouldn't let me stay in Brussels," she said ahead of the election.

"One of the first tasks will be to solve this crisis, to try to stabilize Lithuania's financial position so that the country can climb back up the curve as fast as possible."

Lithuania's non-partisan incumbent President Valdas Adamkus, 82, is retiring after serving two five-year terms, and his successor is due to take the reins in July.

If elected, Grybauskaite would be the Baltic nation's first female head of state.

rb/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Andreas Illmer