Ramūnas Karbauskis, the leader of the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS) which lost the recent parliamentary elections, has said he backs efforts by a coalition partner to dispute the election results.
The Electoral Action of Poles-Christian Family Alliance (LLRA-KŠS) has called for the annulment of results in the multi-member constituency, arguing the vote was influenced by a campaign directed against the party.
Read more: Lithuania's Polish minority party asks to annul election results
The party, which has failed to cross the 5-percent threshold to win any seats, has also pointed to alleged discrepancies in the Paneriai-Grigiškės single-member constituency.
“I believe the parliament could turn to the Constitutional Court and get an answer on how it views such a campaign, as there are really many questions. […] The Constitutional Court is the institution that should have a say,” Karbauskis said during an interview to the radio Žinių Radijas on Wednesday.
The LLRA-KŠS has claimed that the campaign by Laisvės TV against the party's leader Valdemar Tomaševski violated the country's election laws. The messages should have been marked as political campaigning, the party claims.
The journalist Andrius Tapinas, the head of Laisvės TV and a social media influencer, started a campaign in September entitled Farewell to Voldemort, a play on Tomaševski's first name. Accusing the party and its leader of cronyism, Tapinas urged Polish-speaking voters to vote for other candidates than the LLRA-KŠS.
He also reported that his social media followers donated 15,000 euros for the campaign. Laisvės TV said it used the money to produce 300,000 copies of a publication entitled Good bye, Valdemar?
After the first round of voting on October 11, Tomaševski insinuated that Tapinas' campaign was funded by George Soros and “the goal was to attack the political force that advocates strongly for [...] Christian and traditional family values”.
Read more: MEP Tomaševski claims Soros interference in Lithuania's election
The LLRA-KŠS also turned to the Central Electoral Commission with a request to annul the election results in the multi-member constituency. The party also asked the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court to invalidate the results, but the court said the LLRA-KŠS should lodge its appeal under a different procedure.
“Election campaigns in Lithuania, money flows are strictly controlled – and suddenly a campaign pops out, funded with money that came from God knows where, and clearly aimed at the election and the party [LLRA-KŠS],” Karbauskis said on Wednesday. “They lose the election by zero point something percent. So I do understand the LLRA-KŠS's resentment, and I also have questions as to how it can be.”
The LLRA-KŠS got 4.8 percent of the vote in the multi-member constituency, falling short of the 5-percent mark needed to win seats. However, three of its candidates were elected into parliament in single-member districts.
Meanwhile the Farmers and Greens Union, the biggest party in the outgoing parliament, lost to the opposition conservatives. They will still have the second-biggest group in the new parliament to be sworn in mid-November.
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