“What do I and the Ice Cream Party have to do with this?” I don’t agree with the decision, this is where the conservatives are taking their last steps,” V. Uspaskich said to Eltai.
According to the politician, the commission’s verdict will not prevent him from participating in the elections.
“Voters just laugh at the decisions of those commissions, at those funeral ceremonies during the elections. I didn’t pay a cent for the Ice Cream Party. So what is bribery for? “What, I don’t have the right to participate in the Ice Cream Festival?”, emphasized V. Uspaskich.
“And when there are city celebrations and the mayors participate, and then they are on the list, isn’t this bribery?” Increasing pensions a few months before the elections, is this not bribery? Here are bribes,” he added.
As previously announced, the Kėdainiai Electoral District Commission decided that V. Uspaskich bribed the voters by handing out coupons to the audience on stage during the Ice Cream Festival, which could be exchanged for portions of ice cream.
The commission also supported the fact that V. Uspaskich, on his Facebook account, promised a prize, gifts and offered his followers his book “My diseases and enemies – my best teachers” as bribery of voters.
The decision adopted by the Kėdainiai electoral district also stated that the political advertisement of the Peace Coalition was hidden in the word “Peace” made from drones.
ELTA reminds that at the beginning of August, the Ice Cream Festival organized by “Vikonda group” was held in Kėdainiai. For many years, the holiday has been associated with its initiator, the founder of the Labor Party and V. Uspaskich, who temporarily returned to lead the political force. Therefore, the city event in Kėdainiai is often accompanied by discussions about illegal political advertising. The politician is a former shareholder of “Vikonda group”, now the main shareholder is V. Uspaskich’s ex-wife Jolanta Blazytė.
During the event, V. Uspaskich did not miss the opportunity and addressed the audience from the stage, emphasizing that the Ice Cream Festival symbolizes family and peace. During the event, the word “peace” was also arranged in the sky from drones.
The Ice Cream Festival has caught the attention of the CEC before – the last time the event was also held in the 2020 election year. Then V. Uspaskich invited residents to participate in the event on his Facebook account, and this invitation was investigated by the CEC for possible political advertising.
Having returned to the Labor Party, V. Uspaskich will lead the coalition list of three political forces to the Seimas. As the party announced last week, the Lithuanian Christian Democracy Party led by Seimas member Mindaugas Puidokas and the Žemaičiai Party led by Irena Stražinskaitė-Glinskienė will participate in the parliamentary elections together with the “workers”. The parties called themselves the “Peace Coalition”.
Seimas elections will be held on October 13 this year.
2024-09-02 16:06:28