in 1994. Division of modern Lithuania (since 1994) See: Counties of Lithuania, Municipalities of Lithuania, Elderships. In 1994, an administrative division of Lithuania into 10 new counties as the first level of administration was created. However, the structure was modified in 2010 with the abolishment of counties administrations. (The counties continue to be used for statistical and reporting purposes, however.) Lithuania is divided into: 10 counties (Lithuanian: plural – , singular – ), each named after their principal city (see: Counties of Lithuania). These should not be confused with apskritys that existed in the interwar period. the counties are subdivided into 60 municipalities (Lithuanian: plural – savivaldybės, singular – savivaldybė). There are three types of municipalities: 43 district municipalities (Lithuanian: ). They roughly correspond to districts (raions) that existed under the Soviet rule. Before 1994 they were known just as districts and still are commonly referred to as districts. The word "municipality" was added in effort to diminish the Soviet heritage (there were districts [raions] throughout the Soviet Union); 7 city municipalities (Lithuanian: ). They are situated around major or important cities. In common language they are referred to as just cities or as just municipalities (because word "municipality" in Lithuanian language is associated more with cities and city rights than with districts); 10 municipalities. They were all established after 1994 and they do not have the word "district" associated with them. municipalities consist of over 500 elderships (Lithuanian: plural – , singular – ). Each municipality's government is elected in democratic elections of municipality councils. Initially, the elections took place every three years; constitutional amendments in 2002 extended the tenure to four years. The municipality mayors are elected by municipality councils. Also, municipality councils appoint elders to be in charge of an eldership. Currently it is proposed that both mayors and elders should be elected in direct elections. Counties were ruled by (officially translated as "governor") who was appointed by the central government in Vilnius. Their primary duty was to ensure that the municipalities obey the laws of Lithuania and the constitution. They did not have great powers vested in them, and so it was suggested that 10 counties were too many for Lithuania (the smallest county had only four municipalities). There were proposals to replace the counties with four or five lands, a new administrative unit, based on the ethnographic regions of Lithuania and centered on the country's