Lithuania's three opposition parties – the Labor Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Order and Justice Party – agreed to set up a working group in the early hours of Monday for talks on a ruling coalition and agreed to support each other's candidates in the run-off ballot for the Seimas in single-member constituencies.
"We are setting up a working group that will start consultations on a coalition, and we are awaiting the run-off vote," Viktor Uspaskich, leader of the Labor Party, told journalists on Monday night following a meeting of the three party leaders.
In his words, a fourth partner might join the trio later but refused to name it.
"If there's a wish to have a fourth partner, "3+1" talks will take place," he said. "(…) We'll just start consultations, the three of all will meet and then we'll hold talks on the fourth partner," Uspaskich said.
Algirdas Butkevičius, leader of the Social Democratic Party, said the potential coalition partners did not talk about posts.
"We are not talking neither about prime ministers nor ministers until we get the run-off results," Uspaskich said as well.
Asked to comment on reports that the conservatives had launched coalition talks with the liberals, the leaders of the opposition parties said their parties would have an arithmetic majority in the Seimas.
"They can form it, but there will definitely be no arithmetic majority there," Uspaskich said.
Both the exit polls and initial results show the Labor Party is leading in the first round of voting in the Seimas elections, followed by the Social Democrats.
17.10.2012
