In a week, Lithuania is holding local elections to elect councils and mayors of 60 municipalities.
The first round of voting is scheduled on Sunday, March 5. Mayoral run-offs will be held two weeks later, on March 19.
Lithuanian citizens as well as EU nationals who are permanent residents in Lithuania are entitled to vote in the local elections.
Candidate roasters include some nationally prominent politicians, parliament members, former ministers, and MEPs. Here are the candidates for the mayorships of Lithuania’s three biggest cities: Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipėda.
VILNIUS
Sixteen candidates are vying for the mayorship of the capital city, the most competitive race in the country. Moreover, 691 politicians are running to be in the 51-seat Vilnius City Council.
Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius, 34, is the candidate for the liberal Freedom Party. His fellow party member Remigijus Šimašius is the incumbent, but decided not to seek re-election for a third term. Raskevičius is a former Vilnius City Council member and now sits in the parliament, where he heads the human rights committee. Raskevičius is openly gay and has been advocating for LGBTQ+ rights.
Vaidas Benkunskas, 38, is the candidate of the conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD). A lawyer by trade, he currently sits in the Vilnius Council and is a vice mayor.
Mykolas Majauskas, 41, is a parliament member and an independent candidate. Until recently, he was a member of the conservative TS-LKD party, but they parted ways when Majauskas broke party discipline during a budget vote and was expelled. The Australian-educated economist and financier has worked in foreign banks and as an adviser to Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius.
Artūras Zuokas, 54, is running to retake the post that he previously held three times. Accusations of corruption marked his mayorship and Zuokas was convicted for bribery. A businessman when not in politics, Zuokas is one of the two millionaire candidates in Vilnius, having declared assets worth 1.38 million euros.
Lukas Savickas, 32, began in politics as an adviser to former Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis. He was briefly in the limelight when anti-corruption agents investigated the previous government’s procurement of rapid coronavirus tests, in which Savickas was named a special witness. He was elected to parliament in 2020 with the Farmers and Greens Union but joined Skvernelis’ new party, the Democratic Union ‘For Lithuania’, when the former prime minister parted ways with his former allies.
Rasa Budbergytė, 62, has been nominated by the Social Democratic Party. Also a member of parliament, Budbergytė is a former finance minister and member of the European Court of Auditors.
Ieva Kačinskaitė-Urbonienė, 32, is running as the candidate of the Labour Party. A graduate in economics and political science, she is currently a parliament member and has previously been on the Vilnius City Council.
Aidas Gedvilas, 56, is another member of parliament. He left the Labour Party in order to run for the mayorship.
Petras Gražulis, 64, is the candidate of the People and Justice Union for the mayor of Vilnius, even though he has been elected to parliament in the seaside constituency of Gargždai. Gražulis has been convicted for corruption, although he is best known for his anti-LGBTQ campaigning and outrageous statements.
Eglė Radvilė, 37, is a non-member candidate of the Liberal Movement. A graduate in computer engineering, she is the president of the Gediminas Legion, a mentor at the Transparency Academy.
Waldemar Tomaszewski, 57, has been nominated by the Electoral Action of Poles (LLRA-KŠS) party that he heads. A former MP Tomaszewski is currently in the European Parliament where he is serving his third term.
Stasys Jakeliūnas, 64, is another member of the European Parliament running for mayor of Vilnius. He has been nominated by the Farmers and Greens Union.
Remigijus Lapinskas, 55, is nominated by the Green Party. The second millionaire on the roaster, he heads the Green Policy Institute.
Ramojus Girinskas, 43, is a candidate of the Young Lithuania party.
Vytautas Sinica, 33, is a candidate of the National Alliance. A philosopher and political scientist, Sinica is known as a right-wing public intellectual and the leader of the nationalist youth group Pro Patria.
Valdas Tutkus, 62, is a retired general and former commander of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. He has been nominated by the Party of Regions.
KAUNAS
Voters in Kaunas will get to pick their mayor from 12 candidates and will fill their 41-seat city council with members elected from among 436 candidates.
Visvaldas Matijošaitis, 65, is the incumbent finishing his second term. The leader of the political committee United Kaunas, Matijošaitis is a businessman and owner of the Vičiūnai Group, one of the biggest food processing companies in Lithuania. Vičiūnai has recently come under scrutiny for failing to sever all business ties with Russia. In addition to running for mayor, Matijošaitis has his entire family – his partner and two sons – run for the city council.
Vytautas Juozapaitis, 59, is an accomplished opera singer, currently a parliament member heading the culture committee. Despite having lived in Vilnius for many years, Juozapaitis is the conservative TS-LKD’s candidate for the mayor of Kaunas, where he registered his residence just to be able to run.
Aurelijus Veryga, 46, is the candidate of the Farmers and Greens Union. A former minister of health – who headed Lithuania’s Covid-19 response in early 2020, Veryga is an ardent sobriety campaigner and the author of some of Lithuania’s strict alcohol control laws.
Darius Razmislevičius, 42, is a banker and physical education specialist, candidate of the Social Democratic Party.
Mantas Bertulis, 29, is the candidate of the Freedom Party.
Gintautas Labanauskas, 59, is a former social democrat, but is running for the Kaunas mayor as the candidate of the Democratic Union ‘For Lithuania’.
Ieva Budraitė, 32, is the chairwoman of the Green Party.
Nijolė Putrienė, 48, is the candidate of the Liberal Movement.
Darius Trečiakauskas, 58, is the candidate o the Christian Union. He serves on the board of the Lithuanian Parents Union, a pressure group advocating for “traditional family” in education policy.
Marijus Velička, 47, is a former vice minister of defence and the candidate of the Labour Party.
Dainius Varnas, 51, is a teacher and the candidate of the Freedom and Justice party.
Rūta Zabielienė, 64, has been nominated by the People and Justice Union and is an agronomist.
KLAIPĖDA
Eleven candidates are running for the mayorship of Klaipėda this year, while 298 politicians seek to fill 31 seats in the city council.
Vytautas Grubliauskas, the 66-year-old musician, has been at the helm of Klaipėda since 2011. He announced early on he would not seek re-election – but then decided he would, only with a different party. Grubliauskas raised some eyebrows when he jumped from the Liberal Movement to the Social Democratic Party, declaring he’d still remain a liberal “in his heart”.
Arvydas Vaitkus, the 59-year-old businessman and politician, is the only Klaipėda mayor candidate running with a political committee. Vaitkus has headed the Klaipėda State Seaport Authority, served as director of logistics of the Achema Group, and as secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
Remigijus Žemaitis, the 40-year-old lawyer and member of the current parliament, is the candidate of the Freedom and Justice party.
Ligita Girskienė, 43, is another parliament member seeking to be the mayor of Klaipėda, nominated by the Farmers and Greens Union.
Audrius Petrošius, 32, is also an incumbent MP and the candidate of the conservative TS-LKD.
Artūras Bogdanovas, 39, is the candidate of the Democratic Union ‘For Lithuania’ and a former vice minister of agriculture.
Saulius Budinas, 58, has been nominated by the Liberal Movement, the party that held Klaipėda mayorship for over a decade.
Birutė Andruškaitė, a 32-year-old cultural project administrator, is the candidate of the liberal Freedom Party.
Giedrius Bindzas, a 36-year-old business manager, is nominated for the mayorship by the Labour Party.
Arvydas Ektis, 39, is the candidate of the Green Party.
Naglis Puteikis, 58, is a former parliament member and historian. The candidate of the People and Justice Union previously ran for president.
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