Lithuania's former head of state, Valdas Adamkus, won Sunday's presidential election with 54.7 percent of the vote, against 33 percent for his rival, Kazimira Prunskiene, an exit poll released by the Baltic News Service said.
According to the telephone poll of 1,000 people, carried out by Transcom World-wide, 12.3 percent did not vote. Adamkus, a 77-year-old former US emigre who enjoys the support of mainly right-wing voters, had been shown by opinion polls to be the favourite to beat the centre-left Prunskiene.
The pro-US Adamkus, who was president of Lithuania between 1998 and early 2003, started the former Soviet republic on the road to membership of the European Union and Nato, which it joined just several weeks ago.
The early election was called to replace outgoing president Rolandas Paksas, who was impeached on April 6 for shady dealings with a Russian businessman in violation of the constitution.
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