Election results is some Lithuanian constituencies, including Zarasai-Visaginas and Vilnius-Trakai, may be annulled. The Central Election Commission (CEC) is due to make a decision on Sunday, according to delfi.lt.
The news was confirmed to Delfi by CEC Chairman Zenonas Vaigauskas, who did not rule out the possibility that all results would be cancelled, though this would be very unlikely.
There are very serious problems in several constituencies.
So far, the district of Zarasai-Visaginas has proved the biggest headache for the CEC. Here, prosecutors have already applied for a repeal of the immunity granted to the Labour Party’s candidate Rimvydas Podolskis, on suspicion of voter bribery. According to Vaigauskas, there is a good chance that results from the constituency will be discounted.
According to Vaigauskas, the CEC decision on the cancellation of results will be adopted no later than Sunday.
Aside from Zarasai-Visaginas there are several other districts where elections could be posted again. Among them is the Vilnius-Trakai district, where interesting trends in voter preference we recorded.
An annulment of the general election is highly unlikely.
Vaigauskas added that the possibility of cancelling all election results has not been rejected, though the likelihood of this happening is very low.
“More than one million people voted. It is hard to say what proportion were influenced or were dishonest – a thousand or ten thousand? We can try to evaluate this, but it is clear that it is no more than 1%. While this remains unacceptable, this can be dealt with in other ways. It is not as simple as holding the elections again and extending the term of the present government,” Vaigauskas said.
When asked if there was a possibility that the elections would be re-held, the head of the CEC was sceptical, saying, “In my opinion, there is a very small chance, even though a great deal of facts are needed. Unfortunately we do not have all the facts, and we can only consider certain districts.”
Translated by Monika Mikučionytė
Edited by Charlotte Radford
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