LITHUANIA: Mr Valdas Adamkus celebrated becoming Lithuania's president for the second time yesterday, after winning a tight run-off that highlighted deep-seated divisions in the Baltic nation.
The centrist, independent candidate took 52 per cent of votes against 47 per cent for Ms Kazimira Prunskiene, a former prime minister whose pledge to fight corruption and help the poor echoed those of her most prominent backer, ousted leader Mr Rolandas Paksas.
He became Europe's first president to be impeached in April, amid allegations linking him to the Russian mafia and security services, in a lurid scandal that threatened to destabilise Lithuania as it prepared to join NATO and the European Union.
Accession to both bodies passed off smoothly, and economic growth stayed strong amid the political turmoil, giving Mr Adamkus cause for optimism in his moment of victory yesterday.
"I would venture to say that it was a choice between East and West, and a majority of Lithuanians said they are for the West," he said after final results were announced.
"We will pay more attention to general European affairs, raising our standard of living at the same time," promised Mr Adamkus (77), who set the country of 3.5 million on the road to the EU and NATO during his 1998-2003 term in office.
Ms Prunskiene (61) failed to inspire quite the same surge in support among Lithuania's poor and rural communities that sent Mr Paksas' surging to his surprise win over Mr Adamkus in another run-off.
She also failed to capitalise on a scandal that swirled around several parties backing Mr Adamkus last week, when their offices were raided by anti-corruption police investigating claims that politicians had taken bribes from a local energy company.
Mr Adamkus, who spent five decades in the United States at the end of the second World War, said he would co-operate fully with a public probe into the accusations.
"We all are equal before the law," he said. "I am for a public, clear investigation, no matter who is involved in it."
He said he would start forming his new team on Monday, to help him fulfil a role that includes overseeing foreign policy, but is otherwise largely ceremonial.
He also hopes to reunite a nation that was deeply divided over the fate of Mr Paksas, whose claim to be the victim of an elitist conspiracy struck a chord in Lithuania's provinces, where the political class of the capital, Vilnius, are viewed with suspicion.