Druskininkai council to elect acting mayor after conviction upheld

Druskininkai Municipality Council plans to elect an acting mayor early next week after the Lithuanian Court of Appeal upheld the conviction of the city’s mayor, Ričardas Malinauskas, LRT reports.

The council’s website says a meeting will be held on Monday with a single item on the agenda: appointing a council member to temporarily perform the duties of Druskininkai mayor and setting the person’s salary.

The Court of Appeal on Monday upheld Malinauskas’s conviction for influence peddling, making the ruling immediately effective. He remains convicted, must pay a fine and has also been subject to the confiscation of property as a criminal measure.

The Central Electoral Commission is expected to revoke Malinauskas’s mayoral mandate at a meeting on Thursday, in line with the Electoral Code. Because less than a year remains until the next scheduled municipal council and mayoral elections, a new election in Druskininkai would not be held. The acting mayor appointed by the council would serve until next spring.

The case also involved Malinauskas’s former adviser and current council member, Aivaras Kadziauskas, as well as judges from different levels of the courts who handled issues related to the Vijūnėlė manor. Kadziauskas is also expected to lose his mandate. He belongs to the majority “For Druskininkai” faction. The resort municipality’s council has 25 members.

The council’s opposition Right faction issued a statement on Tuesday saying that a convicted person cannot lead the city, but that replacing the mayor alone would not be enough. It called for a different political culture, stronger democratic oversight and greater accountability.

The faction said that more than two decades of Malinauskas’s leadership had produced a model in which decision-making was concentrated in one person’s hands, while criticism and differing opinions were often portrayed as actions against Druskininkai’s interests.

“A criminal cannot lead a city,” the council members said, adding that municipal governance should be based on transparency, accountability to voters and respect for democratic institutions.