“I will run for president of Lithuania only if I win the TS-LKD primaries,” Ušackas said in a Facebook post on Monday.
He states that if he lost the primaries, he would seek “changes within the party, its renewal and putting values above the elite for the aspiration to be come a “people’s party” not to end up as another banal declaration”.
Ušackas is vying against MP Ingrida Šimonytė for the right to become TS-LKD’s presidential candidate. The party’s members and other pre-registered citizens will elect the party’s candidate on Nov. 3-4.
Ušackas says the party is holding the primaries improperly as it failed to create conditions for Lithuanians living abroad to vote, pay proper attention to regions, lacked discussions on Christian values, and “attempts are being made by the party’s aristocracy all possible means to affect people’s free choice”.