Lithuanians shock President with big vote for rival

An easy victory for Valdas Adamkus appeared in doubt last night as sub-freezing temperatures kept voter turn-out low in Lithuania's presidential election run-off.

Mr Adamkus, the country's popular President, was challenged by a former prime minister and stunt pilot, Rolandas Paksas, 46.

In a survey of 2,000 voters at 30 polling sites, the Baltic News Service found that 50.8 per cent had cast their ballots for Mr Paksas, twice the prime minister and a former mayor of Vilnius, the capital. The agency said 49.1 per cent voted for Mr Adamkus.The country's Central Election Commission said that voter turn-out had been as low as 51 per cent.

Mr Adamkus failed to land an outright victory in last month's general election, when he was unable to win an absolute majority. A former American citizen, he won 35 per cent of the vote in the first round, compared with 19.4 per cent for the rightist Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Paksas.

Mr Adamkus, 76, ignored the chill yesterday morning, arriving bareheaded, with his coat unbuttoned, to vote just outside of Vilnius. "I hope people will come to vote today and say what they think about the last five years," he said.

Mr Adamkus said he would continue to develop Lithuania's foreign policy if he won a second term. "I'd help to use the new opportunities which are going to open up for Lithuania being a member of the European Union," he said.

Since being elected in 1998 Mr Adamkus has guided the Baltic state into relative prosperity, boosting economic growth and keeping unemployment low.

Lithuania, with its Baltic neighbours Latvia and Estonia and seven other nations, was invited last month to join the EU on 1 May 2004. In November, Lithuania was invited to join Nato, moving the country further from its past as part of the Soviet Union.

Nearly 2.7 million of Lithuania's residents were eligible to vote in yesterday's election, the third since the country regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Turn-out was hampered by the biting weather with temperatures in Vilnius as low as minus 18C.

The lanky, white-haired Mr Adamkus has distinguished himself as one of the few politicians not to become embroiled in scandals over the past decade, and his approval ratings has risen to about 80 per cent. Last month he was voted the country's person of the year for 2002.

But none of that stifled Mr Paksas, 30 years younger than the President. He won acclaim as mayor of Vilnius for reviving the city's medieval quarter, which had fallen into disrepair under Soviet rule. And he was confident of victory yesterday. "I was flying while mayor of Vilnius and I did so as a prime minister," he said. "I will be a flying president."

Mr Paksas, running well behind Mr Adamkus in opinion polls, did whatever he could to draw attention to himself. This included flying his single-seater plane in formation with two others under a bridge. (AP)