Politics of Lithuania

State of the order (in Lithuania) Municipalities' councils are elected proportional representation. Each party that passes 4 per cent threshold in one municipality, wins seats. Most coalitions that rule in municipality council are "rainbow" coalitions. These coalitions may consist almost all conventional political parties (liberals, socialdemocrats, conservatives) and nonconventional parties (left and right radicals). Prime example of this might be Vilnius city municipality. The municipality' council is 51 councillors strong, so 26 councillors are needed for majority. Composition is as following (by October 2017): Liberal Movement (16 members) Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (8 members) Homeland Union - Christian Democrats of Lithuania (8 members) Lithuanian Freedom Union (Liberals) (6 members) Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (4 members) Party "Lithuanian List" (4 members) Party "Order and Justice" (3 members) Party ...

Companies In Lithuania there are four companies, which are conducting opinion polls. These companies are: Vilmorus Baltijos tyrimai Spinter tyrimai RAIT Each company is in partnership with media groups. These media are: Lietuvos rytas ELTA Delfi Baltic News Service   These companies are taking samples from 1000 respondents (or more), so polls might more reliable than those, which were collected in Austria ( most polls there have 600-700 respondents on average ). 'True' opinion of respondents Most of the respondents are talking about what they really think (in most cases, they put one party in the first place, because that party was put in that position by the media outlets). Simply saying, majority of the respondents do not want to look like losers by their choice. One example might be recorded in October 2016, when Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union won most seats in 2016-2020 Seimas. Opinion polls is shown below ⇩ (source: http://www.l...

Outcome of Marijampolė mayoral election (round 1) As I expected , Irena Lunskienė ( Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija  -  LSDP  ( Social Democratic Party of Lithuania )) came first with 48,07 per cent of vote .  Another prognosis I will stay flat - Irena Lunskienė ( Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija  -  LSDP  ( Social Democratic Party of Lithuania )) will win these mayoral election. Probable share of of vote: Irena Lunskienė ( Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija  -  LSDP  ( Social Democratic Party of Lithuania )) - two thirds of the vote (or more). Kęstutis Traškevičius ( Tėvynės sąjunga-Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai  -  TS-LKD  ( Homeland Union - Christian Democrats of Lithuania )) - one third of the vote (or less).

Marijampolė's municipality (dark green) (source:  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Marijampole_mun_location.png ) Contenders Gediminas Akelaitis ( Lietuvos centro partija - LCP  ( Lithuanian Center Party )) Karolis Dvylys ( Lietuvos valstiečių ir žaliųjų sąjunga - LVŽS  ( Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union )) Irena Lunskienė ( Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija -  LSDP  ( Social Democratic Party of Lithuania )) Dobilas Sinkevičius ( partija ,,Tvarka ir teisingumas “  - TT  ( party "Order and Justice" )) Saulius Skinkys ( Lietuvos Respublikos liberalų sąjūdis - LRLS  ( Liberal Movement of Republic of Lithuania )) Gintaras Skaramočius ( independent ) Kęstutis Traškevičius ( Tėvynės sąjunga-Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai - TS-LKD  ( Homeland Union - Christian Democrats of Lithuania )) Algis Žvaliauskas ( independent ) So when we have so many candidates, important question arises - who will this mayor...

Municipaties in Lithuania (each municipality is represented by its coat of arms) (source:  http://www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=File:Lithuania_municipalities_COA_map.jpg ) Basics In Lithuania there are 59 municipalities. These bodies are administrated by the munipacility's council (led by the mayor) and administration (led by the director). Council basically is observing municipality's agencies and etc., while municipality's administration is preparing evidence for council's meetings, preparing municipality's bugdet and etc. Municipality councils have one meeting each month (if necessary - two meetings if e. g. there is need to appoint interim mayor). 'Size Matters' Size of municipality's council depends from number of the people living in the municipality. By the Local self-government election law ( version of this law in Lithuanian language ) size of the municipality varies as following: number of elected councilors - nu...

Motivation I was inspired by  Peter-Paul Koch  who established website of the Netherlands politics in English. This blog will be concentrated on national politics in Lithuania. Local (municipalities) politics will be also featured, if events there will influence national affairs and/or local (municipality's) politician will be leader of national party. Local (municipalities) politics coverage has one difficulty - Lithuania has 59 municipalities so writing about each of them might not be an option ( this may be straight way to the blog's split as Owan Donowan has shown ). Political system of Lithuania (source:  http://www.truelithuania.com/Nuotraukos/LithuaniaGovernmentScheme.jpg ) Structure This blog will have these type of posts: 1) presentations These presentations will come up to specific matters (e. g. elections in one particular municipality). 2) yearly round-ups Round-ups will be released in autumn. Basic rules (for ...