[ad_1]
When the Constitutional Court (CC) declared the last two direct elections for mayors unconstitutional, the oaths of politicians of all ranks and colors sounded to maintain the leadership.
According to politicians, this requires very little, only to do what the CC ordered: to include in the Constitution the institution of a directly elected mayor.
Furthermore, they all swore that the necessary constitutional majority of 94 votes would unite in the Seimas for such a matter.
And then, or rather in parallel, the politicians undertook to explain what to do with the model of self-government in general, how to balance the powers of mayors, municipalities and administrations.
After all, since the introduction of direct mayoral elections in 2014, it has become clear that this model of self-government is significantly punctured.
But the echo of these harmonious statements did not diminish when we saw that everything was pink smoke.
After all, politicians immediately began to dance their own dances, embarking on a quartet of indictments and snippets, thus clearly testifying that they can probably disagree not only on the model of self-government or its specific structure, but also on the amendment of the Constitution. .
This has shown the criticism of the rulers these days from the opposition, especially the peasants and the Social Democrats, who really do not want direct mayoral elections and will ruin everything specifically.
According to opposition representatives, in the event that a new procedure for municipal elections will not be approved by 2023, since the previous procedure must be maintained: mayors will be re-elected by municipalities.
The left, the peasants and other fiercest enemies of the rulers argue that this is primarily the goal of the conservatives.
Right-wingers are not very successful in direct mayoral elections, as in single-member constituencies during the Seimas elections. The Lithuanian Christian Democrats of the National Union, who generally reject a large part of the electorate, are the strongest in the race for party lists, signs and ideologies, not leaders and faces.
Apparently, therefore, the Conservatives, having begun a review of the entire electoral system, raised the idea of abolishing single-member electoral districts, stipulating that the Seimas should be elected only on the basis of party lists.
Furthermore, among the initiators of appealing to the CC for the legitimacy of direct mayoral elections, the conservatives dominated, who suffered one of the most painful defeats on this front in their Kaunas fortress, when they were simply swept away by non-partisans. actor V. Matijošaitis.
And last weekend, the conservative candidate J. Margaitienė lost the mayoral election to V. Simelis, a representative of the influential Lithuanian Green Party, in the Radviliškis district, which had long been ruled by the right.
At that time, the Social Democrats were the first to attack the announcement of projects to reform the Constitution and determine the number of mayoralties, the CC also demanded it.
In a word, the harmonious process announced by the president of the Seimas V.Čmilytė-Nielsen began to unravel before it began.
It is true that conservatives swear by all the saints that they have no secret intentions, on the contrary, they will do everything possible to guarantee it in 2023. Mayors are directly elected.
However, the fact that the current government poses a great temptation to loot the elections based on their deductions and sympathies or antipathies, confirmed the chairman of the Law and Order Committee of the Seimas S. Conservative S. Shedbar
He raised the idea that the Constitution should be amended to prohibit politicians who voluntarily resign as members of the Seimas from participating in other parliamentary elections.
The opposition immediately made a noise by pointing the finger at the obvious possibility that this was aimed primarily at the peasant leader, the shadow prime minister R. Karbauskis, who had left the Seimas.
One of the main conservative opponents, President G. Nausėda, also put his tripartite in this uproar.
These days the results of the public opinion polls carried out by the Vilmorus company on the electoral system became clear. They have overwhelmingly affirmed what has been known for a long time: Most citizens want politicians at various levels to be directly elected and the influence of the party elite that makes up the electoral lists to diminish.
The Seimas only wants to directly elect in single-member constituencies, even above 64 percent. voters, about 27 percent. they want the current mixed system to be maintained, and only 2% want to collect only by party lists. Such a result can be seen as a manifestation of distrust towards parties and traditional politics in general.
The survey also revealed that nearly 90 percent. the country’s citizens believe that mayors should be elected directly, and only about 5 percent. – in town halls.
In addition, up to 95.4 percent. the voters declared that the president would be elected directly, as before. After all, conservatives had begun to suggest that the relationship between the president’s rather symbolic powers and his direct elections should be evaluated, perhaps the country’s leader should be elected in the Seimas.
R.Karbauskis had openly accused the right-wingers that, in the fight against G.Nausėda on all fronts, they sought to introduce such an order as early as 2024 and then place their leader G.Landsbergis in the Presidency.
Apparently, this also seriously annoyed G. Nausėdas, because the Presidency did not accidentally commission a public opinion poll on this issue.
Be that as it may, V. Čmilytė-Nielsen has already stated that there will be no political will in the Seimas to destroy the single-member constituencies of the Seimas elections, and other ruling figures have almost distanced themselves from the Conservatives’ plans to review the entire electoral system.
