Legislation, Lithuania, Society

The proposal of the social democrats received support not only from the ruling parties, but also from some of the representative of the Opposition. The supporters of the novelty were glad that the Seimas finally decided to make this decision, which would allegedly add to the development of democracy and may win a higher turnout in municipal elections.

"The decision adopted by the Seimas may be called a historical achievement, which will open new possibilities for the development of democracy: mayors will be elected in direct elections, not by agreement between the parties," said one of the initiators of the amendments Minister of Justice Juozas Bernatonis. According to initiators, mayors elected directly will be granted with more rights than the current mayors.

However, skeptics remain certain that mayors elected directly will lack powers to act independently as well as they will lack political support; as a result, political crises in municipalities will become inevitable. Some representatives of the Opposition intend to turn to President Dalia Grybauskaite and ask her not to sign this allegedly anti-constitutional law.

After President Dalia Grybauskaite signs the law, residents will be able to elect mayors directly in the municipal election to take place in late February or early March next year. Direct mayoral elections have been under discussion for almost 20 years. Should voters now rejoice at it? Some politicians and political scientists call the future direct mayoral elections an imitation as without amendments to the Constitution the powers of mayors are only slightly increased.

According to Arturas Melianas, Chair of the Liberal and Centre Union, amendments have been adopted, but in his opinion, it is a certain deceit as it will be only partly direct mayoral elections. "We think that it is necessary to amend the Constitution for a mayor to become the real manager of a town, while these mayoral elections may be called pseudo-elections," said Melianas. To be honest, he admitted that still it was a step forward.

According to political scientist Bernaras Ivanovas, direct mayoral elections do not effect the real change in self-governance structure. "It is really necessary as presently mayors are elected by councils and belong to the majority. From now on mayors will become representatives of the executive branch; therefore, high tension is possible. The more so as municipalities have become the cradle of political parties and there is no secret that parties that come to power very soon start looking for loyal representatives in state enterprises, which provide financial flows to support them. There a new irritant appears and a confrontation, and mayors will be more populist," said Ivanovas.