(Adds paras 3, 5, 8-11)
VILNIUS, May 18 (RIA Novosti) - Lithuanian voters have elected Dalia Grybauskaite, the EU budget commissioner, as their new president, according to preliminary results released on Monday.
With more than 95% of the votes in Sunday's poll counted, independent candidate Grybauskaite had 68% of the vote. Turnout was just over the 50% barrier, meaning that for the first time since 1993 no runoff will be required.
A total of seven candidates, including three women, took part in the elections. Grybauskaite's closest rival, Social Democrat leader Algirdas Butkevicius, finished second with 11.7% of the vote. Order and Justice party leader Valentinas Mazuronis finished third with 6.09%.
Election commission chairman Zenonas Vaigauskas said Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius had sent his congratulations to Grybauskaite, who is now set to become Lithuania's first woman president.
Grybauskaite also received congratulations from Latvian President Valdis Zatlers.
Kubilius is likely to stay on as the head of the government, although the new president is expected to insist on some changes in the makeup of the Cabinet. Grybauskaite told journalists that she would discuss changes to the government's anti-crisis program.
"I have some questions for the prime minister, and there are changes that I would like. If the prime minister agrees to cooperate, I will not rush to replace him. A hasty change in government would be costly for Lithuania. If Kubilius wants to work with me, I will work with him," she said.
A deputy chairman of the State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee expressed hope that Russia and Lithuania would be able to "reset" relations following Grybauskaite's victory. The term "reset" was first used by earlier by U.S. President Barack Obama on hopes for an improvement in ties between Moscow and Washington.
"I will be glad if Russia and Lithuania reset relations," Leonid Slutskii said.
Lithuania, unlike its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, permits the official use of Russian in communities with large ethnic Russian populations, and has not introduced the "non-citizen" status for former U.S.S.R. citizens.
Russian-Lithuanian relations have, however, been marred over several issues, including compensation for the so-called "Soviet occupation" and visa requirements for Russians wishing to travel through the country to Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
Grybauskaite graduated from university in Leningrad and completed postgraduate studies in Moscow in 1988. She worked in the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry for much of the 1990s, including on EU membership negotiations. She speaks Russian, Polish, English and French.
