Dalia Grybauskaite elected Lithuania president-preliminary returns

According to the preliminary results, which the Central Elections Commission announced on Monday, European Commissioner for Financing Programming and Budget Dalia Grybauskaite, who was running as an independent candidate, received 67.68% of votes so far. Her closest rival ? the leader of the Social Democrat Party, Algirdas Butkevicius polled 12.21% of votes. For Grybauskaite to win in the May 17 first round of the elections the turnout was to be at least 50% of all 2.7 million eligible voters. The turnout level has been on the verge of 50% for several hours and only at midnight local time the turnout reached 51.1% required for Grybauskaite to win, according to the preliminary returns of the Lithuanian Central Elections Commission. The official election returns will be announced within a week; Kazinform cites Itar-Tass. See www.itar-tass.com for full version.