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Lithuania's ruling social democrats fall behind in first round of parliamentary elections

Xinhua, October 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

Lithuania's largest ruling party, the Social Democratic Party, suffered a defeat in the first round of the country's parliamentary elections held on Sunday, according to preliminary results of the elections.

The agrarian Peasant and Greens Union took a lead in the multi-member constituency with 22.60 percent of the votes, Lithuania's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) announced on Monday.

The conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) ranked the second with 22.48 percent of the votes.

Based on these figures, the Peasant and Greens Union secured 20 mandates, the TS-LKD won 19 mandates in the Seimas, Lithuanian parliament.

The ruling social democrats are the third with only 15.06 percent of the voters' support and 13 seats in Seimas.

The Liberal Movement was supported by 9.38 percent of the votes and so far has won 8 mandates.

Lithuania's president Dalia Grybauskaite said on Monday people voted "in favor of changes" while commenting on the preliminary results of the ballot.

"It is obvious that people voted for changes and against the current scandal-ridden coalition," Grybauskaite said in a statement.

However, she added that the election is not over yet as voters will have their final decision in the second round on Oct. 23.

Two more parties, the Lithuanian Poles' Electoral Action -- Union of Christian Families, and the Order and Justice Party, surpassed the 5 percent barrier to enter the Seimas, with respectively 5.70 percent and 5.59 percent of the votes.

A total of 71 members of the 141-seat Seimas will be elected in single-seat constituencies, and other 70 MPs are to be elected by proportional representation in a single nationwide multi-seat constituency. A party needs to win at least 5 percent of the votes to enter the Seimas. For electoral coalitions, the threshold is 7 percent.

None of the two coalitions taking part in the elections surpassed the barrier.

The first round of the voting will decide how elected parties share the 70 seats, while the second round to be held on Oct. 23 will finally show the results in the 71 single-seat constituencies. Endi