Jonavos council elects Valdas Majauskas as interim mayor

Jonavos district municipal council has elected Valdas Majauskas as interim mayor, as reported by BNS.

On Tuesday, the council voted to appoint Majauskas, the former director of the municipality’s administration, to serve as acting mayor until spring 2027. He replaces Mindaugas Sinkevičius, who was appointed prime minister. The decision was supported by 22 council members, with one abstention. Sinkevičius had previously endorsed Majauskas as the most suitable candidate for the interim role.

During the same session, Majauskas took the oath as a council member and was officially appointed to the position. Last week, the Central Electoral Commission (VRK) restored his mandate in the Jonavos district municipal council.

Majauskas was elected to the council in 2023 but had to resign his mandate due to incompatibility with his role as administration director. He has now stepped down from that position to assume his council seat.

Last Thursday, the VRK reinstated Majauskas’s place on the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) candidate list for the Jonavos council and immediately granted him the mandate. His seat became available after Povilas Garbauskas, elected from the LSDP list, resigned, and the VRK approved his request.

Under the Law on Local Self-Government, when a mayor’s term ends prematurely, the council appoints an acting mayor by a majority vote of participating members. Sinkevičius resigned as mayor of Jonavos on Monday, July 13, to take up his duties as prime minister.

According to the VRK, since less than a year remains until the next municipal elections, no early mayoral election will be held in Jonavos. The next local elections are scheduled for February–March 2027.

Sinkevičius had led Jonavos district intermittently since 2011. He previously lost the mayoral position in 2024 after the Court of Appeal convicted him in a case involving the misuse of public funds for personal purchases, including televisions and communication services, while serving as a council member. The conviction barred him from public office for several years. However, the Supreme Court of Lithuania overturned the ruling last spring, stating that his actions constituted an administrative rather than a criminal offense, allowing him to return as mayor.