The Party of the Lithuanian List (herein after referred to as the „Lithuanian List“) calls upon the citizens to reclaim their state. Our aim is to revive democracy in the Republic of Lithuania as an independent and autonomous community.
Thus, the „Lithuanian List“ carries forward the historic struggle of the Lithuanian people for a life in freedom founded on the values of Western civilisation.
We encourage our citizens to build a free Republic that unites Lithuanians at home and abroad, where human dignity is respected, where in which a person’s physical integrity is guaranteed, and where the citizens are in control of their homeland.
The „Lithuanian List“ hereby submits a work programme containing the most urgent tasks to the Members of Parliament to be elected and to society at large – the Programme for the Restoration of the Republic.
For the next two years, until the local elections in 2014, we call for:
• the transformation of the Seimas, the Lithuanian Parliament, into a representative body of the people;
• the granting of self-determination to Lithuanian society;
• reigning in the influence of vested interests and a democratic ovehaul of the judiciary system;
• insuring the preservation of human rights.
I. A strong and independent Seimas is the cornerstone of the Republic conceived as a free union of citizens as well as the guarantor of political rights and freedoms. Without an independent and trustworthy Seimas, the people forfeit their freedom. In order to allow for the Lithuanian Seimas to become a truly representative body serving the general public interest, it is crucial to strengthen the ties between the elected representatives of the people and the citizens, unfettering the former of the influence of vested interests and secret services.
For this purpose, the following tasks need to be carried out:
– abolition of party lists in parliamentary elections in favour of representatives being directly elected in their constituencies, thereby strengthening the ties between parlamentarians and citizens as well as decreasing the overall number of representatives.
– granting citizens the right to call snap elections in their respective constituency;
– the adoption of a parliamentarians’ code of honour that clearly sets out their duties towards their voters and obliges them to honourably step down should they forfeit their independence;
– ensuring an effective parlaimentarian control of the executive – all parliamentary enquiries must be public, save very rare, exceptional cases defined by law; 30 000 citizens have the right to initiate a pariamentary enquiry;
– the assignation of experts’ councils working according to the principle of public accountability to all parliamentarian committees (a Lithuanian economic council, a budgetary council, an education council, etc.), that submit public expert conclusions and proposals to the parliamentary committees and to the Seimas as a whole;
– ensuring transparency of the legislative process and allowing for envolvement of citizens – enshrining in law that public consultations, public hearings, public opinion polls and referenda become mandatory when asked for by a citizens’ initiative supported by 100 000 people;
II. A Republic is an independent society where the people are in charge. For the citizens of Lithuania to have a say in their homestead and homeland, the following tasks are to be carried out:
– In Lithuania, as in all of Europe, the precondition of an economically independent local government needs to be created – the election of local councillors and/or local councils by the people must be mandatory;
– the council members must not be elected from party lists, but directly in single-mandate constituencies;
– the local councils must be given the right to delegate members to Regional Councils (of the regions of Aukštaitija, Samogitia, Sūduva and Dzūkija) and to allocate funds to implement economic, cultural, educational, environmental and other projects of common interest;
III. Justice is the foundation of the Republic. For justice to be robust and trustworthy, an overhaul of the judiciary system is essential, in order to disentangle it from the influence of vested interests;
Thus, the following tasks need to be carried out:
– a reform of the judiciary – the Supreme Court needs to be granted the right of a Constitutional Court to incorporate the Administrative Courts into the common judiciary framework;
– ensuring the transparency regarding the selection of judges throughout the entire judiciary, thus securing that judges will act as conscientious and competent judicial officers: candidate judges are to be publicly presented a month in advance, allowing for citizens to query them and to make comments; the judges of the Lithuanian Supreme Court, of the Court of Appeal and of the District Courts are appointed by the Seimas on the proposal of the President following a public hearing;
– a change of the legal order for Public Prosecutors and his deputies to be appointed by the Seimas on the proposal of the President following a public hearing whilst stipulating that the Seimas can appoint a Special Public Prosecutor to investigate special cases;
– the carrying out of a rigorous scrutiny of the judiciary, including a ban from the judiciary profession for KGB staff members and collaborators;
– the nationalization of the Chamber of Judicial Officers.
IV. A strong Republic requires citizens to be safe, respected and their legal and political rights safeguarded. In order to corroborate legal protection, the following tasks need to be carried out:
– it must be unequivocally enshrined in the Constitution that the State cannot strip a person of the citizenship he inherited by birth and from his parents;
– the protection of childrens’ rights needs to be overhauled and made more efficient: the Human Rights Committee of the Seimas must take care of childrens’ rights, and the local childrens’ rights councils must be mandated to the government;
– rescuing citizens having fallen victim to blackmailing by the VSD (State Security Department) by publishing all data associated with unlawful VSD investigations;
– an overhaul of the VSD by restricting its powers to counterintelligence only whilst strictly prohibiting the use of espionage techniques (desinformation, blackmailing, etc.) against Lithuanian citizens and society;
– granting every citizen the right by law to inspect those files compiled by the State that contain information about him;
– an overhaul of the institution of the Parliament’s ombudsman, who should be given the rights to effectively shield people from arbitrary government and assume the responsibility to protect.
To revive the Republic of Lithuania, strong educational and economic mainstays are necessary. The creation of those mainstays is a long-term task requiring long-term joint efforts of society.
The Republic is based on enlightened citizens and their virtues of solidarity, moral strength, political savvy and loyalty towards society. Only free people can save and create a free state. That is why our education system must empower people to live a life of freedom and responsibility.
The backbone of a free state is the middle class. The economic and social policies of our country need to aim at enlarge that stratum of society and strengthen the economic self-reliance of the citizen.
Thus, the „Lithuanian List“ calls upon the politicians and society to join forces now and lay the long-term foundations necessary to edcate free citizens and a free people and to create the conditions for the economic self-reliance of our people and society.