Litouws parlement stuurt president Paksas de laan uit (en)

The Lithuanian Parliament today (6 April) voted to impeach the president of the country, Rolandas Paksas.

The decision did not come as a surprise, because Lithuania's Constitutional Court ruled in March that President Paksas had breached the constitution by granting citizenship to a Russian businessman and leaking classified information to him.

The Lithuanian leader has denied any wrongdoing.

Under the constitution, the parliamentary speaker, Arturas Paulauskas - Mr Paksas' main political rival - will replace him.

Mr Paulauskas would stand in as president for some two months pending an election.

One possible solution is to have the presidential elections together with the European Parliament election on 13 June.

A final decision on this is expected within ten days.

The stand-in president, Mr Paulauskas and his party the New Union (Social liberals) are not very popular among Lithuanians.

Recent opinion polls state that the party may not even exceed the five percent threshold needed to win a seat in the European Parliament.