In Vilnius, the Conservative candidate Valdas Benkunskas, according to preliminary data, won 31.06% of the vote. He will face the candidate of the Freedom and Justice party, Arturas Zuokas, in the second round of the elections, who received 21.67% of the vote.
The Conservatives were also pleased that their candidate in Klaipėda, Audrius Petrošius (20.81%), made it to the second round of the elections. After counting all the votes cast in the 54 polling stations in Klaipėda, he will face Arvydas Vaitkus (24%) in the second round.
"The results in Vilnius and Klaipėda are probably the most inspiring. These are certainly historic results, also in terms of the number of councillors - 19 seats in Vilnius is certainly a top result for our political community," Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė said.
She said she had no doubt that Benkunskas would make it to the second round of elections in Vilnius. She expects a fierce contest.
For his part, A. Petrošius, who made it to the second round in Klaipėda, claimed that voters will have to choose between him and the "seaport oligarch project" in the next round.
"We will have to choose between electing a port oligarch project, where a person potentially represents certain business groups and can hardly take independent decisions, or electing a candidate who hears the public, hears the communities, hears the people and is ready to represent them sincerely on the road to a new age in Klaipėda", he said.
Vyšniauskas recognises where he needs to improve
Andrius Vyšniauskas, the head of the TS-LKD central election headquarters, called the party's performance "stable". He said that the Conservatives usually have about 11 mayors and a similar result is expected this year. However, the party sees where it needs to improve.
"Of course, there are municipalities where the results are a bit worse. Let's say the result in Jonava is not inspiring at all, maybe we expected a better result in Skuodas, Plungė... There are those municipalities, but it seems that we need to sit down and analyse which municipalities we did better in, what worked well there.
Renewal, young candidates are the most common. And we also need to look at what didn't work in other municipalities," Vyšniauskas noted.
Asked how he assesses the party's performance in Kaunas, he urged not to compare the results of the TS-LKD in this city during the municipal elections and the Seimas, as they are different.
"I think that if Matijošaitis were to be nominated to national politics, his result would certainly be worse, even in Kaunas," explained the head of the TS-LKD's central electoral headquarters.
Has the Bartoševičius scandal had an impact?
Among other things, the conservatives admit that it would be naive to say that the scandal of Kristijonas Bartoševičius did not affect the party's achievements.
"It is difficult to assess when the result is similar to the previous one. In Vilnius and Klaipėda we have an increase in votes. Such an assessment requires deeper and broader analyses. Which we will certainly do. But I am certainly not naïve and I do not think that it did not have any influence.
There was some influence, but we need a broader and deeper analysis to understand how and what happened," said Mr Vyšniauskas.
In the municipal elections, the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania has been the most successful - the party has already won mayoral posts in 10 municipalities. The Liberal Movement has secured four mayoral positions, while the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats have won mayoral positions in a couple of municipalities.
Of the 60 municipalities, 26 will no longer need a second round - mayors were elected in the first round.
The Conservatives won two mayorships in the first round: in Palanga City Municipality and Molėtai District Municipality.
The 11 candidates nominated by the Conservatives also made it to the second round of elections.
