Poll shows Lithuanians favour Ingrida Simonyte as next PM

Lithuanian lawmaker Ingrida Simonyte, who was also the country's Finance Minister between 2009 and 2012, topped the list of candidates to lead Lithuania's government after next month's parliamentary elections, a new poll showed on Wednesday.

Simonyte will lead the conservative opposition party Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) in October's parliamentary elections, which is expected to produce 141 members of Parliament, Xinhua news agency reported.

The poll was commissioned by Lithuanian radio and TV broadcaster LRT and conducted by the market research company Norstat.

Simonyte was named as possible Prime Minister by 42 per cent of the respondents. Simonyte belongs to the TS-LKD parliamentary group, yet she is not a member of any party. In May 2019, she ran for the Lithuanian presidency as a candidate from TS-LKD. She was defeated by Gitanas Nauseda in the second round.

She was followed by current Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, also the candidate of the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVZS) who won the support of 20 percent of the respondents.

Viktor Uspaskich, chairman of the Labor Party, ranked third in the poll with the backing of 5 per cent of the respondents. The party has chosen Uspaskich as its candidate for prime minister.

An online and telephone survey was carried out from July 29 to August 31. In total, 1,000 respondents took part in the survey. They were asked which person they would like to see in the post of Prime Minister after the parliamentary election. The names of the candidates that were provided to the survey participants were named by the parties.