The Seimas will operate as usual for the moment, Monday: a massive parliamentary investigation

“We will probably work on Tuesday and Thursday as it is on the agenda. For the moment physically”, the Friday after the Seimas Board meeting 15 minutes commented Seimas Vice President Paulius Saudargas.

Opportunity to explore for everyone

Speaking of COVID-19, Seimas spokesperson Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen organized a remote press conference after the meeting. During the meeting, the politician announced that on Monday a mobile point would appear near the Seimas, where all parliamentarians would have the opportunity to investigate COVID-19.

“On Monday, it will be possible for all members of the Seimas to undergo tests in the Seimas so that infected members of the Seimas, those who do not feel symptoms, are not in the Seimas room,” he said.

Mr. Saudargas indicated that a session of the Seimas Board will be held on Monday, during which it is planned to make decisions about a safer job of parliamentarians in the Seimas.

How the work of the Seimas could proceed, said P. Saudargas on Facebook: it is planned to test the members of the Seimas and the employees of the Chancellery of the Seimas weekly, as well as establish different working conditions in the Seimas and the Seimas.

It is planned to allow testing at least once a week until meetings take place in real time, rather than remotely.

“It is planned to create the conditions for the tests at least once a week (Friday and / or Monday) until the meetings are held in real time, rather than remotely, so that everyone has answers before the meeting .

We also agreed to clearly define an additional and stricter algorithm on how to behave in the Seimas, in the meeting room, who should be isolated and who should not, if it turns out that a person is infected (close, in 1 chair, in front, behind, etc.), he wrote on Facebook. P. Saudargas.

Consider using partitions

According to him, specialists from the National Center for Public Health plan to inspect the Seimas meeting room on Friday, assess distances and risks, and the Seimas Foreign Ministry was asked to evaluate the possibilities of installing partitions between the seats in this room. .

Members of the Seimas should be warned not to walk or gather.

“A clear instruction from the Board is also necessary that all non-plenary meetings be held remotely only: committees, factions, the Conference of Elders, the Board, etc.,” said P. Saudargas.

He is convinced that, in the long term, Seimas should move to telecommuting.

“How to ensure the continuity of the work of the Seimas? Obviously, it is necessary to focus on the search for a teleworking model.

Technical and legal solutions must be provided as soon as possible. Once the decisions have been made, you can even immediately apply to the Constitutional Court for constitutionality. Because legal matters are more serious than technical ones, ”said the vice president of Seimas.

Based on the interpretations of the Constitutional Court, he affirmed that the voting of the members of the Seimas by electronic means must be such that there are no doubts about the identity of the voter. That is, a parliamentarian must be able to participate and vote at will by voice with the camera on, fingerprinting, etc.

Secret voting is often even more difficult from a distance.

“In general, the secret ballot is even more difficult at a distance,” added S. Sargargas.

Three ways

Another problem, he said, is technical, but can be solved.

“There are several paths that we discussed during the meeting:

– use Microsoft’s system tools, which should be specially adapted to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. Latvian Saeima works with his teleworking system. The question is how much does it cost and how fast can you do it.

– use (buy, rent, wait for a gift?) The system used for the Vilnius City Council meetings as a basis, improving it and adapting it appropriately to the Seimas sessions.

Vilnius city council members who have joined by email means (electronic banking, etc.) in the system, can vote, there is the opportunity to include suggestions that arise during the meeting. Sequence to speak, the arguments for / against could be supplemented through the video system.

The only question is whether a Seimas member who joins through banking is already fully authenticated or not. This also requires a video and with each camera turned on during the meetings, ”said S. Saudargas.

He assumed that using the system available in the Vilnius city municipality would be the cheapest option: “The municipality could probably give the voting tool to use / donate, just adapt it, maybe even people to do it.

The third option, which was supposedly proposed by the Seimas Department of Information Technology, is to make the current system in the Seimas plenary room accessible by working on the computers of the Seimas members remotely.

“All legal procedures (writing notes, asking questions, etc.) are followed in this system,” added P. Sargargas.

The rulers proposed changing the status of the Seimas and legalizing the possibility of the Seimas working remotely, but when the “peasants” asked for a break, the project stalled.

According to the draft, after the declaration of emergency or quarantine by order of the President of the Seimas, the possibility should be guaranteed for the parliamentarians to join the Seimas session from a distance.

The rulers emphasized that if the amendments were adopted, the Seimas would only partially function remotely, meaning politicians could debate, but the vote should still take place in the House.

Accelerate the work of the task force

“The amendment to the Statute presented yesterday by our faction partially solves the issue of participation in the discussions, when the members of the Seimas can participate remotely, but do not decide to vote. The vote should continue to live, but at least then it would be possible to compress it for a short time and spend less time in the room, ”said P. Saudargas at the initiative of the leaders.

He also stated that he had proposed expanding the Seimas working group, which had examined the possibilities for remote Seimas work. According to the politician, the representatives of the Vilnius city municipality, the Seimas Law and Order Committee and the Seimas Board should be delegated to this group. The group, he said, should work faster.

“So that we have a draft of solutions as soon as possible,” Saudargas said.

“We agreed to elect the board on Monday and we have already approved the decisions on safer physical work by Parliament and on the faster search for solutions for the legalization of telework,” concluded S. Saudargas in the post on Facebook.

MPs began exploring the possibility of switching to telecommuting after several of them became infected with COVID-19 and had to isolate themselves.

In view of the situation, the Minister of Health, Aurelijus Veryga, proposed to the Seimas to suspend the works for at least two weeks, but next week he expects important votes to approve the new prime minister.