Second round of the election- two mandates for Poles

During the second round of the election to the lower house of the Lithuanian Parliament Poles did not manage to break the record of getting the seat for two members from one-mandate areas. From the six candidates only two of them managed to win in the areas where Poles would always win, these people were: Jarosław Narkiewicz was the winner once again, in the area of Vilnius and Trocki and Rita Tamašunienė managed to win in the area of Vilnius and Szyrwince, where four years ago it was Michał Mackiewicz who was the winner there. All in all, the AWPL party will have 8 of its representatives  in the lower house of the Lithuanian Parliament which consists of 141 people. Nevertheless, they will start working without one member, as the election in the area of Wisagińsk and Jeziorski has been cancelled and will take place next year.

Poles, who for the first time in history, introduced six candidates to the second round of the election, were hoping for success- they were able to exceed the attendance in the election, maybe they will manage to obtain another constituency!  The greatest expectations that people had were of the Nowa Wilejka area, where prior to this election, Tadeusz Andrzejewski marginally lost for the liberal Arturas Melianas. This time, it was the Pole who won in the second round, and Sergej Ursul from the Labour Party, who was his opponent also leading a vivid campaign in this area, managed to win there too.

InVilnius, the AWPL party’s candidates didn’t have much of a chance opposing the conservatives in the constituencies where they had many supporters in the electorate. Zbigniew Maciejewski significantly lost in Szszkinia with diplomat Audronis Ażubalis. Zofia Matarewicz also didn’t manage to win in either of the areas of Justyniszki- Paulius Saudargas’s advantage was quite significant there.

In the area of Orańsk and Ejszyszki, Zdisław Palewicz, the mayor of the Solecznik area managed to keep the result of the AWPL party’s candidate from four years time, which was 40 percent. He also didn’t manage to defeat the liberal candidate Algis Kaseta, who for the fourth time got the mandate in that area.

The attendance in the second round was as always lower than it was in the first round, but in comparison to the second round four years ago, it was a bit higher, which was 35, 4 percent considering the whole country. Police had received over a hundred of complaints concerning the violation of the electoral rules, but so far only one case is being investigated.

Waldemar Tomaszewski, the leader of the AWPL party expressed his satisfaction with the plan he had for the second round of the election; he also said that the position of the party will be stronger, as it has never been before. Prior to the election, he emphasized that he is not happy about the perspective of working with the Labour Party, but he said that he does not exclude the possibility of cooperation with social democrats  , who will be the ones to get the greatest number of seats in the parliament and they will be the ones to decide on the future government. Tomaszewski says that his party will not pursue having the control, but being a party of a coalition may enable  achieving a consensus in terms of the governing.

The results of the second round of the election have shown that it is the nationality that is still the main factor which is taken under consideration while choosing the future recipient of the vote. They also say that Poles may not count on the support from Lithuanian electorate. The f  nationality factor  turned out to be stronger than the logic of voting ‘against’ somebody: inVilniusthe candidates of the AWPL party were not supported by the social democrats or the Labour Party people; they mostly wanted to minimalise the influence of the Conservatives.

In Orany, a candidate of the AWPL party was even slightly supported by a social democrat, who for that action was announced a traitor which even strengthen the anti-Polish movement. In Nowa Wilejka, even the AWPL party’s electorate was disappointing- in the second round Tadeusz Andrzejewski gained there even fewer votes than he did in the first round, which means that part of the electorate was too sure about their victory. Many Russians or Belarusians would trust more some Moldovan fromOdessathan their local Pole…

Source:  http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/druga-tura-dwa-mandaty-dla-polakow

Tłumaczenie Emilia Borkowska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Emilia Borkowska the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.