Nausėda won re-election, defeating Šimonytė in a second-round landslide with 75% of the vote – the largest margin of victory in a free election for any presidential candidate in the history of Lithuania.

The president is also the commander-in-chief of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, and accordingly heads the State Defense Council and has the right to appoint the Chief of Defence (subject to Seimas consent).

[6] In addition, according to a resolution by the Constitutional Court of Lithuania in 1998, the president is required by law to nominate the candidate of the parliamentary majority to the office of prime minister.

[8] Citizens of Lithuania at least 40 years of age whose at least one parent was also a citizen (natural-born-citizen clause), who have lived in Lithuania for at least three years prior, are not serving a prison sentence, are not on active duty in the Lithuanian Armed Forces, are not bound to any other country by an oath and have never been impeached, are allowed to run for president.

[9][10] All pre-registered candidates were required to finalize the registration procedure by 8 March 2024, in order to commence the collection of signatures for the confirmation of their candidacy.

[12] All declared candidates for president had to gather 20,000 signatures physically or online in order to be registered and present them by 28 March 2024 at 17:00 EET.

[40] Until 19 February 2024, any eligible citizen had the opportunity to freely register for the upcoming election and start receiving campaign donations.

On 3 February 2024, the Social Democrats decided to not nominate a presidential candidate for the first time since 1998 and endorsed Gitanas Nausėda in the election.

After announcing his bid on 7 December 2023, Nausėda became the clear frontrunner,[88] while Šimonytė was the sole woman vying for the presidency.

[91] Eduardas Vaitkus was regarded as the pro-Russian candidate in the election and received support from the Polish-majority Šalčininkai region and Visaginas, which is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Russians.

[92] National security in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the financing of the military, universal conscription,[93] managing effects of the ageing population, cost of living,[94] the One China Policy,[95] ratification of the Istanbul Convention, Nausėda's 2019 presidential campaign and alleged connections with business interests from Russia and Belarus,[96][97][98] the Šimonytė Cabinet[89] and its conflict with Nausėda[99] emerged as potential leading issues during the campaign.

[100][101] Both candidates also shared diverging views on the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania, whose naming after the island rather than the standard practice of using its capital Taipei led to diplomatic and economic sanctions from China.

Ignas Vėgėlė attributed his defeat to the distribution of votes among the candidates who campaigned on a change platform and his lack of political experience.

[citation needed] The system has been criticized for providing for a handicapped, monotonous campaign and diluting the chance of unknown candidates to spread their message to wider, untapped audiences.

[124][125][126] While voting was underway on 26 May, Nauseda was warned by the electoral commission after he issued a message on Facebook urging voters to await the results in the gardens of the presidential palace, which the agency deemed to be a possible violation of the rule of silence during election time.

Following the release of the election results for the second round, Šimonytė conceded defeat,[132] and said that she would continue in office as prime minister.

[135] Polish President Andrzej Duda congratulated Nausėda on his reelection and said he was "pleased that we'll be able to continue our excellent cooperation".

[136] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also expressed his congratulations to Nausėda, citing the latter's support for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.