Lithuanians started voting yesterday in parliamentary elections, with an impeached president and a Russian-born pickle magnate poised for a stunning political comeback.
The vote also features a referendum on whether to keep a flawed, Soviet nuclear plant operating beyond its scheduled closure.
If victorious, Rolandas Paksas’ Order and Justice and Viktor Uspaskich’s Labor Party could form the backbone of a new, populist coalition that would likely talk tough to Brussels and cozy up to neighboring Russia.
The governing Social Democrats, who have held the post of prime minister since 2001, are down in the polls and will struggle to pass the 5 percent barrier needed to make it into the Baltic state’s 141-member Seimas, or parliament.
A victory for the populists — who have promised to raise public sector salaries and halve the number of lawmakers — would be a tremendous blow for President Valdas Adamkus, who has fought bitterly with both Paksas and Uskaskich and has appealed to voters not to vote on an emotional impulse.
“I ask you to stand firm against short-term political dismay, anger and a feeling of revenge,” Adamkus said on Saturday.
Paksas was impeached in 2004 for violating the Constitution and abuse of office, making him the first European head of state to be impeached and removed from office. Though he is constitutionally barred from occupying public office, he could wield tremendous influence on the sidelines. His party already controls the mayor’s office in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital.
Uspaskich, who made his fortune in Lithuania selling jarred pickles, was forced to resign from the economy minister’s post after coming under investigation for a conflict of interest case involving Russia, where he was born.
Hounded by prosecutors, Uspaskich fled to Russia in May 2006, but eventually returned to Lithuania, where he was placed under house arrest. He is still under investigation, and although the house arrest has been lifted, he is barred from leaving Lithuania for six years.
In the meantime, Lithuania’s 2.6 million registered voters will be asked whether the Baltic state should postpone closing a Chernobyl-style nuclear plant in Ignalina slated for shutdown in December next year.
The plant’s design flaws scare EU members, who insist that it be closed, while Lithuanians claim that shutting down the unit, which gives them energy independence, will leave them subject to the whims of Russia, an unreliable energy supplier.
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