Homeland Union/Christian Democrats win election

Oct 13, 2008
TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

VILNIUS – Initial results from the Lithuanian parliamentary elections indicate that the Homeland Union/Lithuanian Christian Democrats have won the most seats in the multi-mandate district, with the National Resurrection Party coming in second and Order and Justice in third.

The Homeland Union - Lithuanian Christian Democrats won the elections with 18.51 percent of the vote, show results from 1,729 out of 2,034 electoral districts.

The victorious conservative party is followed by the National Resurrection Party – made up primarily of celebrity figures – which was supported by 15.11 percent of voters. According to preliminary results, the Order and Justice party is third with 13.21 percent of votes.

The ruling Social Democrats received 11.89 percent of eligible votes, while the Labor Party and Youth Coalition bagged 9.56 percent.

Other parties to cross the five-percent barrier in multi-mandate voting include the Lithuanian Poles' Electoral Action with 5.41 percent, the Liberal Movement with 5.37 percent and the Liberal and Center Union with 5.02 percent.

The leader of the Order and Justice Party, Rolandas Paksas, said that he expected his party to do better in the elections.

 "Frankly speaking, I expected better [results of the first round of the elections]. It seems to me that I should give a restrained opinion [about the first round]. In any case, the third place and a numerous faction will enable us to influence the processes inLithuania," Paksas told a news conference on Monday morning.

Under Lithuanian laws, 70 parliamentarians are elected in multi-mandate voting, with another 71 winning earning places in the single-mandate district.

FAILED REFERENDUM

The referendum on continuing the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant past the scheduled shut-off date next year, which took place alongside the parliamentary elections, failed to gather enough votes to pass.

Almost 1.29 million of registered voters came to polling stations to mark the referendum ballots, the Central Electoral Committee announced Monday morning citing preliminary estimations based on the data from 2,025 out of 2,034 electoral districts.

Some 88.64 percent of referendum participants voiced their support for the extension of operations of the nuclear facility until the construction of new nuclear power plant. However, the referendum lacked some 58,000 voters to succeed, the committee's chairman Zenonas Vaigauskas said.

Under Lithuanian legislation, the non-binding referendum is only valid if more than 50 percent of registered voters cast their votes.

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