Bitter divisions are reopened as Lithuania votes for new president

LITHUANIA: Lithuanians elect a new president tomorrow in a hard-fought and unpredictable run-off that has reopened bitter divisions…

LITHUANIA: Lithuanians elect a new president tomorrow in a hard-fought and unpredictable run-off that has reopened bitter divisions among the Baltic nation's political elite, writes Daniel McLaughlin in Moscow.

Former president Mr Valdas Adamkus was clear favourite to win the vote until anti-corruption police last week raided offices belonging to his supporters, and said they were investigating vote-buying allegations against five senior unnamed politicians.

The scandal may play into the hands of his opponent, Ms Kazimira Prunskiene, a former prime minister who has vowed to fight corruption and protect the poor.

Her most prominent supporter is ousted leader Mr Rolandas Paksas. He became Europe's first president to be impeached in April, after being accused of having links to the Russian mafia and allowing his office to be infiltrated by Moscow's intelligence services. He was also embarrassed by his friendship with a Georgian mystic who claims to heal patients by wrapping them in toilet paper.

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Mr Paksas, a former stunt pilot who says Lithuania's political establishment engineered his downfall to protect their privileges, is also a close ally of the head of the Special Investigation Service which led the raids on Mr Adamkus.

"We see the raids as an attempt to provoke confusion in voters' minds, instigated by those who did not like the polls showing support for Adamkus," said Mr Marius Lukosiunas, a spokesman for the man who led Lithuania from 1998-2003, when he was surprisingly defeated by Mr Paksas's youthful, populist campaign.

Mr Adamkus (77) has looked tired and defensive in debates with Ms Prunskiene over the latest corruption scandal, even though she has distanced herself from the raids.

"It has nothing to do with me or, I think, the elections," said Ms Prunskiene (61), who was Lithuania's first prime minister after it regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

"Overall, the scandal favours Prunskiene," said political analyst Mr Mindaugas Jurkynas. "But every coin has two sides, and we know that Lithuanians tend to feel sorry for the persecuted, so it can also benefit Adamkus too."

Mr Adamkus won the first round of voting. However he faces a stiff challenge from a woman who has much support among Lithuania's poor and in the provinces, where the political classes of the picturesque capital Vilnius are viewed with much suspicion.