Svobodna Dnevnik

[Hadash]

El Correo Internacional

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Mordvania: Gintaras Baravykas, a political ally of Bozidar Strnad, is confirmed as presidential candidate
By: Elena Manstein
Published: Dein 20, 1583


Gintaras Baravykas had been Vice-Chairman of the Council of Defense since 1566.

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Gintaras Baravykas, Vice-Chairman of the Council of Defense, has announced that he will run as independent candidate in the first presidential elections in Alvan 1584.

Baravykas, 62, was promoted as Admiral during the Mordvanian Republican revolution of 1565-1566, when he played an important role in the decisive support of the Abdanian fleet to the new republican government. He joined the Council of Defense in Alvan 1566, only a few weeks before the proclamation of the Republic of Mordvania, and became Vice-Chairman of the Council of Defense on Dosa the same year, a position he has kept since then. Back then, he was considered a sympathizer of the left-republican Radical Party, one of the republican parties which would led to the formation of the Republican Social Radical Party, although it is believed he hasn't had much relation with the political establishment in years.

Baravykas did not enter in details about which policies or ideas he would support as President of the Republic, but it is believed that some republican parties, such as the Republican Social Radical Party or the more centrist Radical Democratic Party may consider support his candidacy. Baravykas is an ethnic Bunesgan -although one of his grandfathers was an ethnic Mordvanian and his mother was an ethnic Abdanian- but he hopes to become the first President of the Republic of Mordvania, a position established by the constitutional reform of 1582, and which will replace the office of the Council of Defense, which will turn into a military advisory body.

Baravykas is considered the right-hand of Chairman of the Council of Defense Bozidar Strnad, who will not run as candidate in the 1584 presidential elections. It is not clear if Strnad will personally endorse Baravykas as candidate, though. Baravykas, as Vice-Chairman of the Council of Defense, has played a more outspoken role than Strnad, whom public appearances became rare in the late years, and with a more direct relation with the media and other institutions of the republic. Baravykas is expected to run as a continuation candidate.

Baravykas is expected to officially resign as Vice-Chairman and member of the Council of Defense in the coming days. As consequence, Chairman Bozidar Strnad will become the only original member of the Council of Defense since the Mordvanian revolution in 1566.

Baravykas will face in the presidential elections another former member of the Council of Defense, retired General Bronislav Grazrod, who left the Council of Defense in 1582, and the leader of the far-left United Progressive Socialist Party Zvezdana Serebryak - who was previously Foreign Minister and President of the Republican Council (head of government) in 1573-1576 and 1576-1579, respectively.