Local election in Lithuania was not successful for foreign candidates

VILNIUS – A number of foreigners tried their luck during Sunday's local election in Lithuania but they were not elected, based on preliminary data from the country's Central Electoral Commission.

A public election committees called "Vilnius Citizens' "Bear" featured Roman Alexis Christian Gorecki-Mickiewicz, a French citizen and great-grandson of famous Lithuanian-Polish poet Adomas Mickevicius (Adam Mickiewicz in Polish). But the committee failed to win a single seat on the Vilnius City Council. There were also three other French, Spanish and Belarusian citizens on the list.

The committee's coordinator Zygmunt Klonovski said foreign citizens are interested in municipal activity as they want to contribute to the solution of problems they are facing.

Colombia-born famous Lithuanian singer Jurgis Didziulis, having dual Colombian-Lithuanian citizenship, also wanted to be involved in the Lithuanian capital's political life but his picked public election committee, "Community-led Vilnius", also failed to get any seats.

The local election proved unsuccessful for Ethiopia-born businesswoman Eskedar Mastaviciene, who ran for local council with another public election committee, "City of Gediminas" as it failed to win any mandates.

Uruguay-born Rimantas Leonavicius stood for election in Vilnius with incumbent Mayor Remigijus Simasius' public election committee but failed to be elected councilor. The committee confirmed it to BNS Lithuania that the young man did not win a seat, adding that Leonavicius also has Lithuanian citizenship.

In the western port of Klaipeda, the "Titov and Justice" election committee won two seats on Klaipeda City Council but two Russian citizens on its list failed to be elected, the list's leader and former mayoral candidate Viaceslav Titov confirmed it to BNS Lithuania.

Foreigners were also on the lists of political parties, with several of them included into the lists of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, the Order and Justice party, the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania and several other parties.

Based on the data provided to BNS Lithuania by the Central Electoral Commission on Tuesday, all in all, 43 candidates indicated in their applications that they are citizens of foreign countries. They included 17 citizens of Russia, six citizens of Ukraine and seven citizens of Belarus, two citizens of the United Kingdom and France each, and one candidate from Armenia, Ethiopia. Spain, Italy, Colombia, Latvia, Uruguay, Venezuela and Germany each.

Preliminary CEC figures show they all failed to win council seats.

The first foreigner was elected councilor in Vilnius in 2015. British citizen Mark Adam Harold who represented the Liberal Movement.