Politinės įtampos teritorinės raiškos ypatybės Lietuvoje
ENImportance of the political tension in the modern society is more and more often emphasized. Some steps in the sphere of understanding and investigation of the social field and its political tension have been made in Lithuania. One of such attempts is the exploration of the results of presidential elections presented in this article by Department of General Geography of Vilnius University. Political tension can be analysed as general and internal political tension. General political tension is forming when people are not satisfied with ruling political parties and their policy. People are voting against with a hope to have better life with new political power. The amount of such voters usually express the degree of general political tension. Internal political tension is forming in the territories where people are almost equally voting for and against authorities. Such voting makes possible the internal tension and even political conflicts within the community. The presidential elections have been recognised as a fine indicator of political tension for Lithuania. It is a tradition that one of the candidates for president in the second round of elections always represents the political authorities in power, which are responsible for living standards, whereas the other candidate express the opposite opinion and brings a programme with more radical changes of socio-economic life. Three elections to the president of the Republic of Lithuania (in 2002, 1997 and 1993) are analysed in the present article. The results obtained clearly show that two regions with high degree of general political tension are forming in the North-East Lithuania and northern part of the Middle Lithuania and one belt with great internal political opposition within society along the line Klaipėda-Kaunas-Anykščiai-Biržai.It is remarkable, that zones with the highest electoral activity of voters and zones with the lowest activity are always the same – the West Lithuania and the western part of North-West Lithuania. The main geographical factors that effect the results of presidential elections are: living place of voters (city – countryside), territorial origin of candidates (patrimony) and national structure of voters (Lithuanians – non-Lithuanians).
