Lithuania revisits 1996 election upset, Gediminas statue and pier plans

Thirty years ago, Lithuania saw a sharp shift in parliamentary politics, a dispute with Latvia over the maritime boundary and the unveiling of a statue of Grand Duke Gediminas in Vilnius. LRT looks back at those events and other stories from October 1996, drawing on its archive reports.

A political swing in the 1996 elections

In October 1996, Lithuania held its second parliamentary elections since restoring independence. The Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party (LDDP), formed by former communists, had won the first elections in 1992 by a wide margin, defeating right-wing parties backed by the Sąjūdis movement. In 1996, the political pendulum swung back to the right.

The Homeland Union, also known as the Lithuanian Conservatives, won 70 seats in the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament. The Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party came second with 15 seats, followed by the Lithuanian Centre Union with 13. The LDDP fell from 76 seats in 1992 to just 12.

In discussing the result, LDDP representatives pointed to the scandal involving Adolfas Šleževičius and to election district commissions. The 1996 vote was the first in which computers were used to count ballots. The technology reportedly malfunctioned during its presentation, and after the election some ballots had to be recounted by election commission members.

Voters could also use an election website to check candidates’ profiles. There were logistical problems, too: in one Vilnius precinct, an entire apartment building had been left off the voter lists, and residents discovered this only when they arrived to vote. In Šiauliai, cramped polling rooms led to queues. Reporters there noted that Valdas Adamkus was voting in the city. He was still living in the United States but had been registered in Šiauliai for two years.

Dispute with Latvia over the maritime boundary

The election took place while a dispute with Latvia, which had begun in 1995, was still unresolved. A memorandum signed by Lithuania and Latvia in Maišiagala on May 20, 1995, gave Latvia a section of the maritime boundary that had been allocated to Lithuania. The agreement benefited Latvia because an oil deposit lay in the disputed zone.

Media reports said the arrangement was important to Latvia because of agreements reached behind the scenes with oil exploration companies. The memorandum became the subject of a major scandal after journalists reported on it. President Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas revoked it in November 1996. The two countries signed a bilateral maritime boundary agreement in 1999, but Latvia’s parliament has not ratified it, LRT reports.

Gediminas statue and Palanga pier plans

On September 22, a crowd of thousands watched the unveiling in Vilnius of a statue of Grand Duke Gediminas. President Brazauskas and poet Justinas Marcinkevičius gave the main speeches. The statue, cast from a design by Vytautas Kašuba, drew criticism in October. LRT’s archives also document its journey by road to the capital.

Meanwhile, reconstruction of the pier in Palanga, which had begun in 1993, was continuing, with plans to extend it considerably. On October 1, news emerged of a proposal to build a restaurant and entertainment complex at the end of the pier. LRT reported that the plans were being discussed at Palanga City Municipality.

Thirty years earlier, few people in Lithuania had internet access, and many made calls from payphones. LRT’s retrospective, produced by presenters of the radio programme Buvo nebėra, uses archive reports and old newspapers to revisit the period.