Such actions may have been carried out by persons under the authority of the Lithuanian People's Electoral Action - Christian Families Union (PLRA-Christian Families Union). However, according to the representatives of the VRK, the situation has already been resolved.
"At yesterday's Vilnius District Municipality Election Commission meeting, it was decided not to recount the ballots. Today, the Vilnius District Municipal Election Commission had to transport the bags of ballot papers to the VRC. The Vilnius Municipality administration blocked the process.
It has placed public order officers under its authority who refuse to comment on the situation. The driver of the transport ordered from the municipality has been banned from providing transport services," wrote Algirdas Radušys, a member of the District Commission, on Facebook.
This situation is due to the fact that the LLRA-KŠS appealed against the results of the mayoral elections in the Vilnius district after the party's nominee Waldemar Urban lost the fight for the mayor's seat.
The VRK says the situation has been resolved
For her part, the Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen said that the problems in the Vilnius district showed an inability to accept defeat.
She was probably referring to the politicians of the LLRA-KŠS, which sensationally lost the mayoral elections in the Vilnius District.
"This shows a certain inability to accept defeat", said Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen.
According to lrytas.lt, the spokesperson of the CEC, Indrė Ramanavičienė, in the morning, the commission did receive a message from the chairwoman of the Vilnius District Municipal Election Commission that the municipal election commission was facing difficulties in transporting the ballot papers and other electoral documents to the CEC because the municipality of the Vilnius District was hindering the transportation of the ballot papers and was not providing the necessary transport for this.
However, according to the VRK, this situation has been resolved, although police officers were also needed.
"To the best of our knowledge, the situation has already been resolved, and the Electoral Commission is currently transporting the ballot papers to the storage place, accompanied by a team of Lithuanian police officers. Thus, the ballot papers and other election documents should reach the Election Commission safely.
I would like to emphasise that the delivery of the documents from the municipalities to the High Electoral Commission at the end of the voting period is a perfectly normal formality in the organisation of elections. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no similar cases in the past.
Usually, the administrations of all Lithuanian municipalities smoothly and kindly ensure the delivery of the election documents to Vilnius," said I.Ramanavičienė.
"The police will collect all the material, assess the actions of the responsible persons and take a decision on the possible application of liability," the police added on Facebook.
As a representative of the Central Election Commission (CEC) told Elta earlier, the Vilnius district municipality, run by the Lithuanian Poles' Electoral Action-Christian Families Union (LPA-LCA-ChFU), did not provide transport to bring the ballot papers to the Chief Election Commission.
The municipality's public order officers prevented the smooth delivery of the documents.
"It is the municipality's duty to provide transport and to help with these formalities.
This is the first time such a case has arisen. We hope that the situation can be resolved amicably, and if not, we do not rule out the possibility of calling the police," she said this morning.
A. Anušauskas: intervention of the Prosecutor General's Office is needed
The Minister of National Defence, conservative Arvydas Anušauskas, believes that the Prosecutor General's Office should also intervene in the incident that occurred on Thursday when police assistance was needed to remove election documents from the Vilnius district.
"The municipal administration of the Vilnius district, still run by Tomaševskis' party, which lost the mayoral elections, started openly violating the electoral law and prevented the ballot papers from being transported to the Verkhovna Rada.
Such a step requires the intervention of the Prosecutor General's Office and a very clear signal that they can be held responsible for breaking constitutional laws," Anušauskas shared his assessment of the situation on Facebook.
R. Tamašunienė explained why the removal of election documents from the Vilnius district was not allowed
Rita Tamašunienė, a member of the Lithuanian Poles' Electoral Action-Christian Families Union (LPA-LFUC), says that the tension in the Vilnius district over the removal of election documents is linked to disagreements in the constituency. She said there was a disagreement on whether to recount the mayoral election votes in the Vilnius district, which was lost by the LLRA-KŠS candidate Waldemar Urban.
"There was a disagreement among the district commission members about the district chairwoman's actions. A vote was taken on a complaint for a recount. By seven votes, it was decided to examine the complaint. But the Chairperson, seeing that there was no majority, decided not to call a second vote. Therefore, this morning some members of the district commission thought that the ballots should not be handed over to the CEC because the decision might be that the votes would have to be recounted," Tamashunienė explained the situation to journalists in the Seimas, without missing an opportunity to repeat the reproaches that LLRA-KŠS had already made earlier regarding the riflemen who were on duty in the polling stations in Vilnius district during the main voting.
Vilnius District Municipality Chief Electoral Commission (CEC) Vilnius District Electoral ballots Electoral Action of Poles for the Election of Lithuania - Union of Christian Families (PELU-Christian Families Union)
