VILNIUS, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Public election committees have obtained the most votes in Lithuania's municipal and mayoral elections on Sunday after wining 26.76 percent of mandates, preliminary data of the Central Electoral Commission (VRK) showed Monday.

A total of 97 public election committees and 18 political parties competed in the municipal elections this year, according to the VRK.

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.

The Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrat (TS-LKD) came second with 16.05 percent of the votes, followed by the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) which obtained 13.24 of the votes, the VRK announced after votes from 1,970 districts were counted.

"We call yesterday's election a modest victory. We have more mandates than in 2015 and we are the first among political parties," Chairman of TS-LKD Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters at a press conference on Monday.

Lithuania's ruling Farmers and Greens Union (LVZS) won 11.16 percent of the mandates in the municipal councils.

"It did not go in the way that we expected. We should not consider ourselves winners, but we did not lose either," said Ramunas Karbauskis, leader of the LVZS.

Nineteen mayors were re-elected in the first round of mayoral elections on Sunday, while 41 municipalities will hold a runoff mayoral election on March 17.

In Lithuania's capital city Vilnius, incumbent and former mayors Remigijus Simasius and Arturas Zuokas will compete in a runoff election, while in the country's port city Klaipeda, incumbent mayor Vytautas Grubliauskas will compete with Arvydas Vaitkus, director general of Klaipeda Port.

Visvaldas Matijosaitis, mayor of Lithuania's second-largest city Kaunas, was re-elected in a landslide victory on Sunday with nearly 80 percent of votes obtained.

On Sunday, Lithuanians voted to elect mayors for 60 municipalities and 1,442 members of municipal councils. A total of 13,666 candidates competed for these positions. The total voter turnout in the elections was 47.80 percent.