“I would think that both the (Liberals – BNS) faction and I myself intend to support it, I think that (Election Code Amendment – BNS) will receive support.” If voluntarily, as we can see, that norm does not work and some information is forgotten, and it seems that this fact is important enough for the public, the other way would be to oblige the politicians, and then everything would be clearer”, the head of the parliament told reporters in the Seimas on Tuesday.
Commenting on the information published by the news portal “15min” that 20 former members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union currently work in the Seimas, and two of them indicated this former connection in the questionnaires, V. Čmilytė-Nielsen said that this example only once again testifies that “politicians it is better to publicize those facts of the biography which may be important, because sooner or later they will come out anyway.’
According to the portal, there are former members of the Communist Party in almost all factions of the Seimas: five in the “For Lithuania” Democratic faction, four each in the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats, Peasants and Greens and Social Democrats factions, two in the Liberal Movement faction and one in the ranks of the Freedom faction.
“15min” Investigation Department found the personal files of 12 current parliamentarians among the documents of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Komsomol Youth Organization stored in the Lithuanian Special Archive.
These are conservatives Kęstutis Masiulis, Algis Strelčiūnas, democrats Vilija Targamadzė, Algirdas Stončaitis, Zigmantas Balčytis, Laima Nagienė, “peasants” Antanas Vinkus, Dainius Kepenis, Rimantė Šalaševičiūtė, Algimantas Dumbrava, social democrat Liudas Jonaitis, “liberal” Artūras Žukauskas.
Conservatives Antanas Čepononis and Kazys Starkevičius, social democrats Rasa Budbergytė, Vidmantas Kanopa and Algirdas Sysas, liberals Jonas Varkalys and Ričardas Juška, democrat Algirdas Butkevičius themselves admitted to journalists that they belonged to the Communist Party.
In April of this year, it became clear that President Gitanas Nausėda did not indicate his affiliation to the Communist Party when filling out the candidate’s questionnaire.
On Tuesday, the Seimas is considering an amendment to the Election Code, so that candidates participating in the elections should indicate their former membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Lithuania, and their positions in their structures.
According to the project, if a candidate indicated such a position, this fact would be announced on his election poster, and if he concealed this information, the Central Election Commission would not register him as a candidate or exclude him from the election.
The Lithuanian Communist Party was founded in 1918, and after Lithuania regained its independence, it was banned in 1991.
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