Voting closes in Lithuanian presidential, European Parliament elections

Polling closed in Lithuania's elections for a new president and 13 members of the European Parliament Sunday.

First results were expected towards midnight (2100 GMT), election officials said.

Lithuania's central electoral commission reported a turnout of 39.11 percent in two-thirds of polling stations about an hour before polling booths closed.

Voters had two sets of ballot papers, one to choose between five candidates to replace ex-president Rolandas Paksas, who was impeached two months ago in a corruption scandal, and the other for the continent-wide European Parliament elections.

The 77-year-old former president Valdas Adamkus, who was ousted by Paksas at the ballot box in 2002, was the favourite in pre-election opinion polls to become the next president.

But the vote was clouded with uncertainty, with analysts insisting during voting on Sunday that the race was wide open.

The presidential race dominated the country's first ever election to the European Parliament, after it joined the European Union with nine other new members on May 1.

Opinion polls have indicated that the Labour Party, established only last year and headed by populist Russian-born millionaire parliamentarian Viktor Uspaskich, is favourite and could win up to 20 percent of the vote in the EU polls.

The ruling Social Democrats lagged behind with a predicted 14.2 percent in the European Parliament election.