the Municipal Elections' Act was amended. The amendement forbade dual mandate of Seimas and municipal council membership. In May 2004, the Constitutional Court of Lithuania decided that a person removed from office through impeachement for breaching the oath of office can not stand in parliamentary or presidential elections, or serve on the government, disqualifying Paksas from the elections. Politicians not standing Ramūnas Karbauskis (VNDPS) Campaign Opinion polls suggested that Labour Party, coalition "Working for Lithuania", Homeland Union and Liberal and Centre Union would be the main contenders in the elections. Labour Party was founded in October 2003, a year before the elections, by a Russian-born businessman and member of the Seimas Viktor Uspaskich and won the elections to the European Parliament earlier in 2004. The populist party campaigned on the promise of increasing living standards and fighting corruption. Many of its promises, such as lowering prices by 10 to 20%, increasing the minimum salary and pensions, tax holidays for newly established companies, all within less than three years, were criticized by economists as unfeasible. Nevertheless, the party garnered strong support in rural areas and small towns. "Working for Lithuania" was the coalition of the Social Democrats (led by Prime Minister, Algirdas Brazauskas) and the New Union (led by the Speaker of the Seimas, Artūras Paulauskas) parties, which had led the government since 2001. The coalition campaigned on their record in the government and promised further economic growth, lower unemployment and increases in salaries and pensions. The prospects for electoral coalition was raised by July 2004, when the New Union (Social Liberals) failed to reach five per cent threshold in 2004 European Parliament elections. In two single-member constituencies (No. 30 (Alytus) and No. 56 (Trakai-Elektrėnai)) Julius Sabatauskas and Dangutė Mikutienė competed with Artūras Skardžius and Vytautas Petkevičius respectively, who were supported by the coalition. Conservative Homeland Union, led by Andrius Kubilius, once again campaigned pointed to dangers posed to Lithuania by Russia. The party allied itself with the Liberal and Centre Union, led by Artūras Zuokas but headed in the elections by Petras Auštrevičius. Several members of the party, including Zuokas, had been under investigation for corruption and financial fraud. Finally, the Liberal Democratic Party of Rolandas Paksas led a coalition "For the Order and Justice". Since Paksas was barred from participating in the elections, its electoral list was headed by Valentinas Mazuronis. Paksas had expressed hopes that the electoral list