Lithuania_s ruling Conservatives were roundly thrashed in countrywide municipal elections on March 19.

Conservatives won only 199 out of 1,667 seats in different city and country councils; that_s down from the almost 500 seats they won in the last local election With unemployment rising to 11 percent and the government implementing harsh austerity measures to rein in a large budget deficit, the ruling party has seen its popularity sink over the past year. The government was also bitterly criticized for the sale last year of Mazeikiai Oil to American investors. Many critics said the oil conglomerate, which includes the region's only refinery and a pipeline, should have been kept in Lithuanian hands. Others said the deal, especially the government_s concession to fill a 350 million dollar shortfall in Mazeikiai_s operating budget, was badly thought out. Publicly, the Conservatives seem resigned to defeat in September_s parliamentary election, and many seemed to expect the big losses Sunday. The biggest winner was the center-left New Union, headed by 1998 presidential candidate Arturas Paulauskas. The party, which took 270 municipal seats, had campaigned against the government_s privatization policies. The second place finisher, a coalition between the anti-EU Farmers Party and Christian Democratic Union, won 226 seats. The pro-market Liberal Union, led by ex-Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas, won 166 seats; it also won majorities in key city councils in Vilnius and also in Lithuania's second largest city, Kaunas.