VILNIUS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Nine candidates will contest Lithuania's presidential election in May, the country's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) announced on Tuesday.
Economist Gitanas Nauseda; Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis; Members of Parliament Ingrida Simonyte, Mindaugas Puidokas and Naglis Puteikis; philosopher Aryvdas Juozaitis; European Commissioner Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis; and Members of the European Parliament Valdemar Tomasevski and Valentinas Mazuronis will compete for the top post on May 12.
On April 12, the candidates will receive their documents and will acquire legal immunity, the CEC said.
In order to be officially registered as candidates, the presidential hopefuls needed to collect at least 20,000 supporting signatures.
Simonyte collected more than 68,000 signatures, Nauseda was second with over 43,000 and Skvernelis third with 37,000 signatures.
According to the latest poll commissioned by the Lithuanian daily Lietuvos Rytas and conducted by the public opinion research company Vilmorus, 54-year-old economist Nauseda is currently the most popular candidate, with 23.5 percent of respondents seeing him as the next leader of Lithuania.
Former Minister of Finance Simonyte, 44, is ranked second with 22 percent voter support, while 48-year-old Prime Minister Skvernelis is third with 18.4 percent.
The survey was conducted on March 7-15.
