Municipal election ballot papers from Vilnius District were delivered to the Central Electoral Commission (VRK) on Thursday after the district’s outgoing mayor tried to prevent it.
Robert Duchnevič, a social democratic candidate, closely won the mayorship of Vilnius District by some 500 votes, upsetting the three-decade control of the region by the Electoral Action of Poles (LLRA-KŠS) party. The party’s leader Waldemar Tomaszewski later suggested that there could have been voting irregularities that influenced the results.
On Thursday morning, the VRK said it was prevented from taking the ballots from the municipality.
“Vilnius District Municipality does not give the municipal election commission access to the ballot papers, preventing it from bringing the documents to the VRK, where they have to be delivered today,” VRK spokeswoman Indrė Ramanavičienė told BNS.
Later on Thursday, she informed that the ballots were safely delivered to storage.
“Everything was resolved peacefully. The ballot papers are now in a storage place,” she said.
Outgoing Vilnius District Mayor Marija Rekst, of the LLRA-KŠS party, told BNS that she had not allowed the ballot papers to be removed from the municipality building because she sought a recount and wanted to “avoid misunderstandings”.
“We have had painful experiences and we really wanted a recount. [...] And I am asking why they are so afraid. Because there have been cases where 100 ballot papers were hidden in Rudamina,” she said.
Rudamina is a village in Vilnius District. Rekst was referring to an allegation made by Tomaszewski, the LLRA-KŠS leader, that the electoral commission in the village hid 100 ballots.
Social Democrat Duchnevič won last Sunday’s mayoral run-off election in Vilnius District with 50.2 percent of the vote against 49.07 percent for Waldemar Urban of the LLRA-KŠS.
The Social Democrat won the election by 526 votes to claim the seat which has been held by the LLRA-KŠS since 1995, when the predominantly Polish-speaking municipality was established.
The VRK is expected to decide on a recount of votes in Vilnius District during its meeting on Friday, before officially certifying the results of Lithuania’s local elections.
“The constituency [electoral commission] had a meeting yesterday and took no decision whether to recount or not, [...] and the chairwoman simply decided to take the ballots away today,” Rekst told BNS.
For her part, Janina Girucka, the Social Democrat chairwoman of the constituency electoral commission, told BNS that the decision to hand over the ballot papers to the VRK was made by the entire commission after consultations.
Ramanavičienė, the VRK spokeswoman, also said that public order officers had been on duty outside the Vilnius District Municipality building.
Rekst confirmed that the officers had been watching the situation at her request, but added that they had not interfered with the VRK work.
“I asked them to be there [...] to ensure order,” she said.
The VRK spokeswoman described Thursday’s incident in Vilnius District as unprecedented.
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