VILNIUS - Lithuania's impeached president Rolandas Paksas did not become mayor of Vilnius as some pundits expected, but his party nevertheless managed to rally enough support to ensure victory in the mayoral vote. Juozas Imbrasas, 67, a member of the board of Paksas' Order and Justice Party, was elected Vilnius' new mayor late in the evening of April 16 after an hours-long election process.
In what was meant to be a secret poll, 28 out 51 members of the Vilnius municipal council voted for Imbrasas, who was the only candidate for the mayoral position. One member of the council voted against him, while 22 councilors 's mainly from the Conservative Party and Liberal Center Party 's did not take part in the vote.
Imbrasas has been working in the Vilnius municipality since 1997. He has twice served as vice-mayor and held the mayor's position briefly in 1999 's 2000.
After graduating from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute in 1966, Imbrasas worked as an engineer for several years and later as functionary in Soviet ministries and other state institutions. He has been a member of both the Liberal and Conservative parties, and joined Order and Justice in 2002.
The vote was held in an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust. The procedure was interrupted when a few members of the vote counting commission broke the seal of the ballot box, claiming that members of Order and Justice had been marking their ballots to show their fellow party members on the counting commission how they had voted. The voting procedure later continued, but three members of the counting commission refused to sign the protocol confirming the final results.
However, Imbrasas himself said he does not doubt the integrity of the result.
Apart from the 14 councilors from the Order and Justice Party, Imbrasas was also supported by six politicians from Polish Election Action, four members of the Social Democrat Party and four members of Liberal Movement.
Polish Election Action and the Social Democrat Party had earlier agreed on a coalition with Order and Justice. Algirdas Paleckis, chairman of Social Democrat Party's Vilnius division, signed a coalition agreement despite warnings from party leadership that such a move may cost him his party membership. He also decided to decline his seat in Parliament in order to work at the municipal level.
But support by the Liberal Movement came as a surprise, as the party had earlier been fiercely opposed to letting Order and Justice grab power in Vilnius. It had been involved in talks with the Conservative Party and the Liberal and Center Union aiming to establish a coalition that could take on Paksas' party.
In exchange for the support in the mayoral elections, Liberal Movement was allowed to nominate their candidate for vice-mayor. There has also been speculation among city council members of a backstage deal whereby the Liberal Movement's support was traded for a promise by Order and Justice to support the liberals in Lithuania's third largest city Klaipeda, where they're aiming for the mayoral position.
Paleckis and Arturas Liudkovskis of Polish Election Action also became vice-mayors.
Paksas, whose victory in Vilnius in the Feb. 23 elections was a major surprise for most observers, had earlier announced he would not seek the mayor's position himself.
"Such is reality today. We decided to choose a more positive scenario and nominate Juozas Imbrasas, as otherwise Algirdas Brazauskas [leader of the Social Democrat Party] would have destroyed our coalition," Paksas said at a briefing on April 13.
Brazauskas, according to Paksas, banned Vilnius' Social Democrats from supporting him in the mayoral elections.
But Imbrasas' victory may be called into question.
Algimantas Vakarinas of the Liberal Center Party, one of the three members of the vote counting commission who refused to put his signature to the ballot's final protocol, said that the election results may be contested.
"Election ballots were clearly marked and this is a violation of the law. We shall consider whether to challenge the results in court," Vakarinas said.
Mayors in Lithuania are elected for a four-year term.
