Pair facing a runoff in Utena changes after recount

The election outcome has changed in the Utena single-member constituency after ballot recount, with a Social Democrat dropping to the third place from initial results, the Central Electoral Commission (VRK) said Tuesday.

The recount of the votes in Utena resulted in changes after finding an error made when entering the results into the election watchdog’s information system.

Independent Vitalijus Šeršniovas will face off against and Edmundas Pupinis, candidate of the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD), in the second round. Gintautas Paluckas, candidate of the Social Democratic Party (LSDP), was short of 48 votes to made it through to the runoff due 27 October.

Votes in the Utena single-member constituency were also recounted four years ago, after the second round of the 2020 Seimas elections, with Pupinis and Paluckas being the contenders. Then they secured the identical number of votes – 7,075 each.

Lithuania held the first round of parliamentary elections on 13 October. The VRK decided to recount results in six constituencies due to a close race between the candidates who finished second and third with a small vote difference.