VILNIUS, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Mayors of Lithuania's three largest cities won re-election, preliminary data of the country's Central Electoral Commissions (VRK) showed Monday.
The Lithuanian capital Vilnius's incumbent mayor Remigijus Simasius received 60 percent of voters' support, beating his rival Arturas Zuokas who received just 38 percent of the votes.
"I am proud of all of you as we came to these elections talking not against somebody, but in favor of the values that we believe in," Simasius was quoted by local media as speaking to his supporters after the preliminary results were announced late Sunday night.
According to Simasius, the result is "a great victory," yet the next four-year term at the office "will not be easy."
A number of new important education, infrastructure and construction projects are planned for his second term as Vilnius's mayor, Simasius said in his interview with the news website Delfi.
In Lithuania's third largest city Klaipeda, mayor Vytautas Grubliauskas was re-elected with 55 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, in second largest city of Kaunas, mayor Visvaldas Matijosaitis was re-elected in the first round of the elections on March 3.
According to the VRK, after two rounds of the elections, Lithuania's Social Democratic Party won the highest number of mayoral seats, 15 in total.
Public election committees came second with 12 mayoral seats received, and the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrat obtained 11 mayoral seats.
The country's ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union won 6 mayoral seats.
Public election committees, which made their debut in Lithuania's 2015 municipal elections, are legal groups made up of ordinary citizens who want to run in municipal elections without establishing or joining a political party.
During this year's municipal and mayoral elections, Lithuanians voted to elect mayors of 60 municipalities and 1,442 members of municipal councils.
