Presidential elections were held in

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

in December 1997 and January 1998.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An expe ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1201 In the first round on 21 December, the independent candidate

Artūras Paulauskas Artūras Paulauskas (born 23 August 1953 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian politician. He was the Speaker of Seimas, the parliament of Lithuania, from 2000 to 2006, and he served as Acting President of Lithuania from 6 April 2004 to 12 July 2004. E ...

led the former

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

Valdas Adamkus Valdas Adamkus (; born Voldemaras Adamkavičius; 3 November 1926) is a Lithuanian-American politician, diplomat and civil engineer. He served as the 5th and 7th President of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009. Adamkus' ...

but neither received a majority of the vote, resulting in a run-off being held on 4 January 1998, in which Adamkus defeated Paulauskas.

Campaign

The main contenders were

, who was

Stasys Lozoraitis :''See Stasys Lozoraitis Jr. for an article about a son of Stasys Lozoraitis.'' Stasys Lozoraitis (born: September 5, 1898 - December 24, 1983) was a prominent Lithuanian diplomat and politician who served as the Foreign Minister of Lithuania fr ...

' campaign manager in the 1993 presidential election,

, an advocate and former Deputy General Prosecutor, and

Vytautas Landsbergis Vytautas Landsbergis (born 18 October 1932) is a Lithuanian politician and former Member of the European Parliament. He was the first Speaker of Reconstituent Seimas of Lithuania after its independence declaration from the Soviet Union. He has ...

Speaker of the Seimas The Speaker of the Seimas ( lt, Seimo pirmininkas, literally translated as Chairman of the Seimas) is the presiding officer of the Seimas, the parliament of Lithuania. The speaker and deputy speakers are elected by the members of the Seimas durin ...

. In 1997 President Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas announced that he would not seek re-election and endorsed Paulauskas. Paulauskas was supported by the

Liberal Union of Lithuania The Liberal Union of Lithuania () was a liberal political party in Lithuania. History The party was founded on the 25th of November, 1990 on a basis of the Vilnius University Liberal Club. Its first leader was Vilnius University philosophy profe ...

and

Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos demokratinė darbo partija, LDDP) was the renamed Communist Party of Lithuania. It was a political party in Lithuania in the 1990s, which claimed to be social-democratic. The youth organizati ...

, while Adamkus was supported by the

Lithuanian Centre Union The Lithuanian Centre Union, or Centre Union of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos centro sąjunga, LCS), was a liberal political party in Lithuania that existed between 1993 and 2003. History It was established by the centre-fraction in Sąjūdis in 1990 a ...

Results

In the first round, Artūras Paulauskas won in nearly all every municipalities (except for

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

and

Klaipėda Klaipėda (; ; german: Memel; pl, Kłajpeda; russian: Клайпеда; sgs, Klaipieda) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. The capital of the eponymous county, it is the third largest city and the only major seaport in Lithuan ...

districts' municipalities). Valdas Adamkus won in latter districts' municipalities. Although Vytautas Landsbergis hadn't won in any municipality, he won 41.9 per cent of the votes cast in foreign representations. After the first round of elections, Vytautas Landsbergis endorsed Valdas Adamkus. In the second round, votes for Artūras Paulauskas and Valdas Adamkus were cast almost equally. Valdas Adamkus won in all districts' municipalities in the

Klaipėda County Klaipėda County ( lt, Klaipėdos apskritis) is one of ten counties in Lithuania, bordering Tauragė County to the southeast, Telšiai County to the northeast, Kurzeme in Latvia to the north, and Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia to the south. To the ...

and along

Neman River The Neman, Nioman, Nemunas or MemelTo bankside nations of the present: Lithuanian: be, Нёман, , ; russian: Неман, ''Neman''; past: ger, Memel (where touching Prussia only, otherwise Nieman); lv, Nemuna; et, Neemen; pl, Niemen; ...

up until

Alytus Alytus is a city with municipal rights in southern Lithuania. It is the capital of Alytus County. Its population in 2022 was 53,925. Alytus is the historical centre of the Dzūkija region. The city lies on the banks of the Nemunas River. The maj ...

. Adamkus also received the most votes in

Šiauliai Šiauliai (; bat-smg, Šiaulē; german: Schaulen, ) is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 107,086. From 1994 to 2010 it was the capital of Šiauliai County. Names Šiauliai is referred to by various names in different l ...

Panevėžys Panevėžys (; Latin: ''Panevezen''; pl, Poniewież; yi, פּאָנעװעזש, ''Ponevezh''; see also other names) is the fifth largest city in Lithuania. As of 2011, it occupied with 113,653 inhabitants. As defined by Eurostat, the population ...

Jonava Jonava ( ; pl, Janów; german: Janau) is the ninth largest city in Lithuania with a population of . It is located in Kaunas County in central Lithuania, north east of Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania. It is served by Kaunas Internat ...

and

Utena Utena () is a city in north-east Lithuania. It is the administrative center of Utena district and Utena County. Utena is one of the oldest settlements of Lithuania. The name of the city is most probably derived from a hydronym. The name of the s ...

districts' municipalities. Artūras Paulauskas won in the remaining districts' municipalities, including

and

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

Aftermath

In April, 1998, Artūras Paulauskas and his campaign team formed a new party,

New Union (Social Liberals) The New Union (Social Liberals) ( lt, Naujoji sąjunga (socialliberalai), NS) was a social-liberal political party in Lithuania. The NS was a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) and an observer of the Liberal Internatio ...

, which became the most supported single party in 2000 parliamentary election.

References

External links

1997–98 Lithuanian presidential elections
VRK {{DEFAULTSORT:1997-98 Lithuanian presidential election

Presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Presidential elections in Lithuania