Six registered as presidential candidates in Lithuania

The six registered candidates are European Commissioner Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, philosopher Arvydas Juozaitis, economist Gitanas Nauseda, Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, MP Ingrida Simonyte and MEP Valdemar Tomasevski.

The three other aspirants are MPs Naglis Puteikis and Mindaugas Puidokas, and MEP Valentinas Mazuronis.

Each presidential aspirant had to file application documents, pay a deposit and collect at least 20,000 signatures by a certain deadline.

Over 27,00 signatures were collected by Andriukaitis, over 33,000 by Juozaitis, over 43,000 by Nauseda, over 32,000 by Skvernelis, over 68,000 by Simonyte, and over 28,000 by Tomasevski, the election watchdog said.

Mazuronis, Puidokas, and Puteikis submitted around 25,000, 29,000 and 21,300 signatures, respectively.

Lithuania will hold the first round of presidential elections on May 12, with a runoff scheduled for May 26 if none of the candidates wins an outright majority.