Municipal elections in Lithuania were held on 5 March 2023[1] and saw 1,498 members of the municipal councils and 60 mayors elected to office for a four-year term.
Election system
editSize of cabinet in each municipality varies depending on populations. Lowest population municipalities with up to 5,000 inhabitants have 15 seats, while largest municipalities with over 500,000 inhabitants have 51 seats.[2]
During mayoral elections, a single candidate must receive over 50% in first round, otherwise the top two candidates will participate in second round. If turnout is less than 40% in specific municipality, the candidate must receive at least 20% of all registered votes to win the title.
Changes in regulations
editNew Lithuanian Elections Codecs came into power on 1 September 2022. With new regulations all elected mayors will no longer have a seat in the municipal council and the number of mayoral terms is now capped at a maximum of three.[3]
Mayoral elections
editVilnius Mayor
editKaunas Mayor
edit| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visvaldas Matijošaitis | Public election committee "United Kaunas" | 77,762 | 59.66 | |
| Aurelijus Veryga | Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union | 16,639 | 12.77 | |
| Vytautas Juozapaitis | Homeland Union | 12,817 | 9.83 | |
| Ieva Budraitė | Lithuanian Green Party | 6,070 | 4.66 | |
| Nijolė Putrienė | Liberals' Movement | 3,851 | 2.95 | |
| Gintautas Labanauskas | Union of Democrats "For Lithuania" | 3,674 | 2.82 | |
| Mantas Bertulis | Freedom Party | 2,982 | 2.29 | |
| Darius Razmislevičius | Social Democratic Party of Lithuania | 2,720 | 2.09 | |
| Darius Trečiakauskas | Christian Union | 1,375 | 1.05 | |
| Marijus Velička | Labour Party | 1,356 | 1.04 | |
| Rūta Zabielienė | People and Justice Union | 596 | 0.46 | |
| Dainius Varnas | Freedom and Justice | 492 | 0.38 | |
| Total | 130,334 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 130,334 | 97.76 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 2,986 | 2.24 | ||
| Total votes | 133,320 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 247,958 | 53.77 | ||
| Source: VRK | ||||
Klaipėda Mayor
edit| Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
| Arvydas Vaitkus | Public election committee "Loyal to Klaipėda" | 12,004 | 24.00 | 30,913 | 62.56 | |
| Audrius Petrošius | Homeland Union | 10,421 | 20.84 | 18,502 | 37.44 | |
| Remigijus Žemaitaitis | Freedom and Justice | 10,212 | 20.42 | |||
| Ligita Girskienė | Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union | 5,571 | 11.14 | |||
| Vytautas Grubliauskas | Social Democratic Party of Lithuania | 3,843 | 7.68 | |||
| Saulius Budinas | Liberals' Movement | 3,681 | 7.36 | |||
| Artūras Bogdanovas | Union of Democrats "For Lithuania" | 1,164 | 2.33 | |||
| Birutė Andruškaitė | Freedom Party | 1,040 | 2.08 | |||
| Naglis Puteikis | People and Justice Union | 955 | 1.91 | |||
| Giedrius Bindza | Labour Party | 643 | 1.29 | |||
| Arvydas Ektis | Lithuanian Green Party | 476 | 0.95 | |||
| Total | 50,010 | 100.00 | 49,415 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 50,010 | 98.15 | 49,415 | 98.49 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 945 | 1.85 | 757 | 1.51 | ||
| Total votes | 50,955 | 100.00 | 50,172 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 124,879 | 40.80 | 124,954 | 40.15 | ||
| Source: VRK (first round), VRK (second round) | ||||||
Municipal councils' results
edit| Political party | Municipality elections | Mayoral elections | Note | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | %[5] | Seats | Seats | |||
| Social Democratic Party of Lithuania | 204,029 | 17.45 | 358 | 17 | ||
| Homeland Union | 189,396 | 16.20 | 239 | 5 | ||
| Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union | 107,568 | 9.20 | 185 | 8 | ||
| Public election committees | 161,861 | 13.84 | 183 | 11 | ||
| Liberals' Movement | 81,262 | 6.95 | 135 | 9 | ||
| Union of Democrats "For Lithuania" | 78,052 | 6.68 | 124 | 5 | New | |
| Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance | 62,359 | 5.33 | 57 | 1 | ||
| Lithuanian Regions Party | 28,927 | 2.47 | 56 | 1 | ||
| Freedom and Justice | 60,794 | 5.20 | 55 | 2 | ||
| Labour Party | 42,927 | 3.67 | 46 | 0 | ||
| Freedom Party | 41,522 | 3.55 | 13 | 0 | New | |
| Lithuanian Green Party | 19,386 | 1.66 | 12 | 0 | ||
| Christian Union | 6,124 | 0.52 | 8 | 0 | ||
| People and Justice Union | 10,704 | 0.92 | 7 | 0 | ||
| Central Right Coalition | Homeland Union | 7,566 | 0.65 | 6 | 0 | |
| Liberals' Movement | ||||||
| Freedom Party | ||||||
| Visaginians coalition | Homeland Union | 1,487 | 0.13 | 5 | – | New |
| Liberals' Movement | ||||||
| National Alliance | 13,140 | 1.12 | 3 | 0 | New | |
| Coalition „Best Choice“ | Freedom and Justice | 2,060 | 0.18 | 3 | – | New |
| Freedom Party | ||||||
| Liberals' Movement | ||||||
| Coalition „For Freedom to Grow“ | Liberals' Movement | 1,209 | 0.10 | 3 | – | |
| Lithuanian Green Party | ||||||
| Coalition „Strong Family - Strong Kaunas“ | Christian Union | 3,049 | 0.26 | 0 | – | New |
| People and Justice Union | ||||||
| Young Lithuania | 1,495 | 0.13 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Samogitian Party | 741 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Independent candidates | – | – | – | 1 | ||
| Void votes | 43,516 | 3.72 | – | I - 29,656 | 2.54% | |
II - 8,763
|
1.34% | |||||
| Total | 1,169,174 | 100 | 1,498 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,389,342 | 48.93 | ||||
| Source: VRK[6] | ||||||
Vilnius City Council
edit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
| Homeland Union | 65,718 | 30.45 | 19 | |
| Freedom and Justice | 31,537 | 14.61 | 9 | |
| Freedom Party | 29,330 | 13.59 | 9 | |
| Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania | 23,892 | 11.07 | 7 | |
| Social Democratic Party of Lithuania | 13,811 | 6.40 | 4 | |
| National Alliance | 10,416 | 4.83 | 3 | |
| Liberals' Movement | 8,365 | 3.88 | 0 | |
| Union of Democrats "For Lithuania" | 8,361 | 3.87 | 0 | |
| Labour Party | 6,098 | 2.83 | 0 | |
| Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union | 5,020 | 2.33 | 0 | |
| Lithuanian Regions Party | 4,237 | 1.96 | 0 | |
| Lithuanian Green Party | 3,910 | 1.81 | 0 | |
| People and Justice Union | 2,470 | 1.14 | 0 | |
| Young Lithuania | 1,495 | 0.69 | 0 | |
| Christian Union | 1,191 | 0.55 | 0 | |
| Total | 215,851 | 100.00 | 51 | |
| Valid votes | 215,851 | 96.64 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 7,509 | 3.36 | ||
| Total votes | 223,360 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 453,315 | 49.27 | ||
| Source: VRK | ||||
Kaunas City Council
edit | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party or alliance | Votes | % | Seats | |||
| Public election committee "United Kaunas" | 64,351 | 49.73 | 26 | |||
| Homeland Union | 20,635 | 15.95 | 8 | |||
| Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union | 9,828 | 7.60 | 4 | |||
| Social Democratic Party of Lithuania | 6,944 | 5.37 | 3 | |||
| Union of Democrats "For Lithuania" | 5,323 | 4.11 | 0 | |||
| Lithuanian Green Party | 5,071 | 3.92 | 0 | |||
| Freedom Party | 4,954 | 3.83 | 0 | |||
| Liberals' Movement | 4,700 | 3.63 | 0 | |||
| Strong family - Strong Kaunas | Christian Union | 3,049 | 2.36 | 0 | ||
| People and Justice Union | 0 | |||||
| National Alliance | 2,019 | 1.56 | 0 | |||
| Labour Party | 1,872 | 1.45 | 0 | |||
| Freedom and Justice | 642 | 0.50 | 0 | |||
| Total | 129,388 | 100.00 | 41 | |||
| Valid votes | 129,388 | 98.49 | ||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 1,980 | 1.51 | ||||
| Total votes | 131,368 | 100.00 | ||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 247,958 | 52.98 | ||||
| Source: VRK | ||||||
Klaipėda City Council
edit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
| Public election committee "Loyal to Klaipėda" | 10,166 | 20.75 | 8 | |
| Freedom and Justice | 9,188 | 18.75 | 7 | |
| Homeland Union | 9,086 | 18.54 | 7 | |
| Liberals' Movement | 4,766 | 9.73 | 3 | |
| Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union | 4,505 | 9.19 | 3 | |
| Social Democratic Party of Lithuania | 3,977 | 8.12 | 3 | |
| Freedom Party | 1,954 | 3.99 | 0 | |
| Union of Democrats "For Lithuania" | 1,846 | 3.77 | 0 | |
| Lithuanian Green Party | 1,241 | 2.53 | 0 | |
| Labour Party | 1,228 | 2.51 | 0 | |
| People and Justice Union | 1,045 | 2.13 | 0 | |
| Total | 49,002 | 100.00 | 31 | |
| Valid votes | 49,002 | 94.26 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 2,986 | 5.74 | ||
| Total votes | 51,988 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 124,879 | 41.63 | ||
| Source: VRK | ||||
References
edit- ^ "Lithuania looks to hold mayoral, municipal council elections on March 5". lrt.lt. 2022-09-09. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
- ^ LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKOS RINKIMŲ KODEKSO PATVIRTINIMO, ĮSIGALIOJIMO IR ĮGYVENDINIMO KONSTITUCINIS ĮSTATYMAS
- ^ https://www.vrk.lt/naujienos/-/content/10180/5/pradeda-galioti-rinkimu-kodeksas Pradeda galioti
- ^ Merai
- ^ of all votes
- ^ 2023 m. kovo 5 d. savivaldybių tarybų ir merų rinkimai - Partijų, komitetų gautų balsų ir mandatų skaičius Lietuvoje