[ad_1]
Regular elections for the Seimas are normally held on the second Sunday in October and a second ballot is held in two weeks. These dates are inscribed in the Constitution of Lithuania.
LVŽS: current practice – harmful
In turn, LVŽS proposed to organize the Seimas elections at the beginning of the year, at the latest, at the end of March.
“In order to achieve a sustainable public finance policy, we will try to harmonize the date of the Seimas elections with the budget preparation cycle. We propose that the Seimas elections be held at the beginning of the calendar year, and at the latest, at the end of March ”, Announced the match in 2016 in his program with which he entered the Seimas.
15min photo / LVŽS did not postpone the date of the Seimas elections
According to her, by changing the date, the newly elected Seimas could adequately supervise the entire budget preparation process, which begins in April and ends in October-November.
“The implementation of this reform will abandon the current harmful practice of the newly elected Seimas having to accept the budget prepared by the government formed by the previously elected Seimas,” said LVŽS, and all these statements were eventually transferred to the government program.
Amendments have been submitted
In late 2016, a group of ruling “peasants” together with representatives of the Polish Electoral Campaign-Union of Christian Families proposed changing the Constitution to reduce the number of parliamentarians and, at the same time, bring the Seimas elections to battle.
Seimas during the presentation accepted such amendments, 67 deputies voted in favor. It is true that at the time of adoption, in order to change the Constitution, greater support would be needed: at least 94 representatives of the nation.
Photo by Sigismund Gedvila / 15min / Saulius Skvernelis and Ramūnas Karbauskis
The Government headed by Saulius Skvernelis welcomed the initiative to advance the date of the elections to the Seimas. However, he emphasized that even after this, the newly formed Cabinet of Ministers (and at the same time the Seimas) “would not have the opportunity to participate in the process of preparing the draft state budget for the new budget year from the beginning by objective reasons “.
The Seimas considered amendments to the Constitution as additional Committee of Public Administration and Municipalities and endorsed them widely. At that time, the bill had to reach the main Law and Order Commission and the Constitutional Commission, but so far no conclusions have been reached.
The amendments regarding the change of the date of the elections to the Seimas had to return to the plenary session in the spring session of 2017, but they were not removed from the drawer.
Presidency: there is no good date
In 2019, before the election of the country’s leader, the leader of the ‘peasants’ Ramūnas Karbauskis decided again to recall this issue and promised to talk about the change of date of the elections to the Seimas with the newly elected president and the opposition, but the discussions do not appear to have advanced.
“The date of the elections to the Seimas is regulated by the Constitution, therefore, it can only be changed by the will of the Seimas. In the opinion of the president, it is the Seimas that should show the initiative to change the date “, – the position of the head of state Gitanas Nausėda 15 minutes delivered by his spokesman Antanas Bubnelis.
Photo by Julius Kalinskas / 15min / Antanas Bubnelis
According to him, the president has publicly alluded to the fact that the budget is prepared by one government and executed by another. On the other hand, there is no universally good date.
“If that law were changed in 2019, the Seimas elections in the spring of 2020 probably would not have taken place,” said A. Bubnelis.
This year, the budget, as before, will be approved by the new government.
The situation would be calmer if the newly elected Seimas considered the budget proposal.
“The situation would be calmer if the newly elected Seimas examined the draft budget. Example four years ago: the government was approved on December 13 and the budget was adopted by the Seimas on December 14. In fact, that may be missing. time, ”said Finance Minister Vilius Šapoka, speaking on LRT radio.
So what stopped us from considering the amendments further?
A.Širinskienė: LVŽS does not renounce its intentions
Agnė Širinskienė, the chairwoman of the Seimas Law and Order Committee, says it would have made no sense because the rulers lacked votes.
“There is no constitutional majority to support this project, since it is still at the time of its presentation <...> Very clearly, other political parties have said that the government can also start work in the autumn, and they are satisfied with the situation. And constitutional amendments, as you know, require a qualified majority, and a very large one, which we have never had. Further consideration was clearly useless. ” 15 minutes she commented.
Eriko Ovcharenko / 15min nuotr./Constitution
According to the politician, the “peasants” did not achieve other objectives related to the reform of the Constitution, such as reducing the number of members of the Seimas. But A.Širinskienė promised that in future the LVŽS will support the proposal to change the date of the Seimas elections, if someone needs that support.
“If the new Seimas has such initiatives, I think we will certainly not give up on our intentions. In practice, it would be wise to consider the budget when there is not a month or a month before it is adopted. Because now there is a situation where it comes a new government with a budget made up of the old government, which is difficult to change in a month, ”said the parliamentarian.
P.Valūnas: perhaps we still need to consider
According to its president Petras Valiūnas, the Constitutional Commission did not consider the amendments because they were supported by very few members of the Seimas. But now it is possible to return to this topic.
There was no majority support, here we saw an illusion.
“There was no support from the majority, we saw that there was an illusion here. But it is good to remind you that I will try to hold a committee meeting and investigate this issue. They may react differently “, 15 minutes declared P.Valūnas.
Photo by Julius Kalinskas / 15min / Peter Valiūnas
Realizing that the government will change soon, and the consideration of amendments to the Constitution is a long process, and it may no longer make sense to have a meeting on this issue, the chairman of the commission hesitated: “Yes, there are deadlines. .. I dont know. The group will still have to be consulted, perhaps it still needs to be considered. “
In the Seimas, the draft amendments to the Constitution are debated and voted on twice, and there is a pause of at least 3 months between these votes.
[ad_2]
