According to the Main Electoral Commission (GEC), in the second round the Social Democrats secured the posts of seven mayors, and together with the victory in the first round they will have 10 representatives among the heads of self-governments.
The biggest surprise during these elections came from the residents of the Vilnius region. For the first time this municipality will not be headed by a representative of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – the Union of Christian Families. In the second round, their candidate was defeated by the Social Democrat Robertas Dukhnevičius.
“These elections of members of municipal councils and mayors have shown once again that we, the Social Democratic Party, are a serious and powerful party that people all over Lithuania trust,” Vilija Blinkeviciute, chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, told reporters on Sunday.
“I really declare that I will be the person who will be open to everyone,” Dukhnevičius said.
The Social Democrats also won the most seats in these municipal elections – together with the mayors, they will have a total of 375 seats in the municipalities, while the conservatives, coming in second in terms of the number of seats, will receive 244 seats.
LIBERALS IMPROVED THEIR POSITIONS, CONSERVATIVES TAKEN VILNIUS
A total of 11 municipalities will be led by committee representatives – five more non-partisan politicians were elected in the second round.
Committee members will head Kaunas, Klaipeda, Siauliai and Panevezys.
The Liberal Movement won five more mayoral elections in the second round and will lead a total of nine municipalities.
“The second round confirmed good results, we stood at the start of the elections with 7 mayors (6 were elected in 2019, Pagegiai joined later), today it is already clear that we are 9,” said the leader of the Liberals, Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, on Facebook on Sunday .
Seven mayors from the Union of “Peasants” and “Greens” of Lithuania were elected in the second round – a party with one mayor elected in the first round will have a total of eight municipal leaders.
In Vilnius, the conservative Valdas Benkunskas won the fight against the former mayor of the “Freedom and Justice” Artur Zuokas. In other municipalities, the Union of the Fatherland – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, which formed the ruling coalition in the Seimas, won four more mayoral positions, but the party leadership is unhappy with the results, since they currently have twice as many mayors as they did in last Sunday’s elections.
“The victory of the Fatherland Union in Vilnius, which won the confidence of the citizens in both the mayoral and council elections, is a signal to voters about which direction the party should take,” said Tory Party chairman, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis to BNS on election night.
On the other hand, according to him, the results in the regions were not surprising.
“We will analyze the reasons in detail,” Landsbergis said.
THE DEMOCRATS WILL HAVE FIVE MAYORS, THE PARTY OF FREEDOM, PART OF THE RULE IN THE SEIM, WILL HAVE ZERO
The Democratic Union “In the name of Lithuania” will have five mayors, four of them will be elected in the second round.
Two municipalities will be headed by mayors of the Freedom and Justice party, one of the two positions of heads of local administrations has been retained by the Electoral Action of Lithuania – the Union of Christian Families.
One self-government – Shirvintsky district – will be headed by a representative of the Party of Regions.
In Jurbarkas, self-nominee Skyrmantas Mockevicius is re-elected for the third time.
The Freedom Party, which is part of the ruling coalition in the Sejm of the current convocation, after the defeat of the only candidate who was still running for mayor of the Elektren municipality, MP Silva Lenvginienė, was left without leaders of the municipality.
Of the five deputies of the Seimas who made it to the second round of elections, the victory on Sunday is celebrated by the only “agrarian” Arvydas Nekroshyus, who won the elections in the Raseinsky district from the conservative Audrias Bautronis.
A different fate happened to candidates Dalia Straupaite in Visaginas and Kestutis Tubis in the Anyksciai region, who were expelled by the Central Electoral Commission and reinstated by a court decision.
In Visaginas, the incumbent mayor Erlandas Galaguzas overtook the representative of the “Freedom and Justice” Straupaitė, and in Anykščiai, “Agranius” Tubis, who defeated the Social Democrat Dainius Žegialis, is celebrating his victory.
The second round of elections for heads of local administrations was held in 34 municipalities. In the first round, 26 mayors were elected.