The elections were held in Lithuania last Sunday on June 7. EAPL members took part in them and according to the party their results were good. Such an assessment of the results of repeated local elections in Trakai and Širvintos districts as well as of elections’ of a member in a single-seat Varėna-Eišiškės constituency was presented by the Chairman of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, Member of the European Parliament Valdemar Tomaševski and EAPL Seimas Faction Vice Chairwoman Vanda Kravčionok during a press conference which took place in the Seimas on Monday.

‘EAPL candidate for the position of the Mayor of Širvintai district Rita Tamašunienė took fourth place and gained 4.51 percent of the votes. All in all, there were 7 candidates for the position. The coalition of EAPL and the Alliance of Russians ‘Valdemar Tomaševski block’ took third place and got 15,46 percent of votes in the municipality of Trakai district. The EAPL candidate for the position of the Mayor of Trakai district Marija Puč was fourth in the elections. The EAPL candidate in the elections of a member in a single-seat Varėna-Eišiškės constituency Andžej Andruškevič got to the second round where he will face Vidas Mikalauskas,’ announced V. Kravčionok.

Sunday’s elections’ results were also assessed as good by the chairman of the Electoral Action V. Tomaševski.

‘I consider elections’ results as good: we managed to keep our positions in the districts of Trakai and Širvintai despite the fact that in the Trakai district we gained 1 mandate less than during previous elections. It should be noted, however, that this was not due to the smaller number of votes, but only due to the manner of their distribution, because quite a few parties managed to surpass the required threshold,’ said the chairman of the Electoral Action.

‘Our representative Andžej Andruškevič scored a decisive victory in the first round of the elections. The results of yesterday’s elections predict successful outcomes of coming parliamentary elections that will be held in October 2016. Tendencies are good, so we will try to get the mandate of the member. The party is in good shape, we feel a lot of support and we expect to double our team in the Seimas next year,’ said Tomaševski.

Another topic of the press conference was the EAPL presentation in a bad light by the Lithuanian public radio and television broadcasted (LRT).

‘We deplore that the TV show presented yesterday by LRT was biased and not objective – especially that such contents was spread by a public broadcaster,’ V. Tomaševski expressed his opinion about  LRT TV show-report about a picket for the  defence of minority schools organized on 1st June, the International Children’s Day.

‘This is not the first attempt to intimidate citizens that are fighting for their rights. It is normal to unite citizens in order to achieve common objectives, at least in Europe. Only in Lithuania there are attempts made to intimidate the organizers of the pickets, exert influence on them. These are bad tendencies that should not happen,’ Tomaševski said.  He also added that it is a standard for all parliamentary parties to have equal airtime of public broadcast throughout the European continent

‘We have been a parliamentary party for many years, but we have never received an invitation to take part in any political programme,’ deplored the EAPL chairman and  through the media appealed to the leadership of the Lithuanian public television and radio broadcaster to be more democratic, less bias and to ensure same amount of airtime for all parliamentary parties.

www.L24.lt

2015-06-08