Lithuanian presidential candidate Nauseda expects voters to come to polls

VILNIUS - Lithuanian presidential candidate Gitanas Nauseda says he expects voters turn out to the polls in large numbers on Sunday. 

"I hope that people will actively participate in the elections this Sunday and that neither good weather nor bad weather will prevent (them from showing up), because the most we can do for our country is to come and vote – according to our conscience and our mind and according to the vision that people see," he said on Friday.  

Nauseda spoke with reporters after he and his wife, Diana, cast their early ballots at Vilnius Municipality.

Friday is the last day of advance voting in the presidential runoff and the European Parliament elections.

The candidate said he wanted to win the runoff "to give Lithuania a different impulse, more mutual trust, friendliness, more constructiveness".

"I hope most of the things that are moving slowly or are not moving at all today will get off the ground and we will advance at a quick pace," he added.  

Nauseda downplayed the support declared by some political parties, saying "intermediaries are hardly needed between a candidate and voters".   

The ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, the opposition Lithuanian Social Democratic Labor Party, and the Order and Justice, a member of the ruling coalition in the parliament, have declared their support for Nauseda in the runoff. 

The board of the opposition Liberal Movement has also said they back Nauseda, though its members were not unanimous on the issue. 

Nauseda, an economist standing as an independent in the presidential election, is facing 

MP Ingrida Simonyte, a former finance minister nominated by the conservative Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats, in Sunday's runoff, which coincides with the European Parliament elections. 

Some 140,228 people, or 5.78 percent of all eligible voters, cast their ballots during the four days of advance voting, almost unchanged from the same period in the first round of the presidential election two weeks ago. 

Candidates of 16 political parties and public election committees are vying for Lithuania's 11 seats in the European Parliament.