Lithuanian List

The Political Party "Lithuanian List" ( lt, Politinė partija „Lietuvos sąrašas“) is an anti-establishment, anti-corruption political party in Lithuania. It was represented in the Lithuanian unicameral legislature, Seimas, from 2016 to 2019.

History

Foundation

The party emerged from 2012 protests against corruption in the Lithuanian justice system after the dismissal of the chairman of the Financial Crime Investigation Service by interior minister Raimundas Palaitis. The leader of the protests was former Minister of Education and TV host . Together with , the former chief editor of ''Lietuvos žinios'', who claimed to have been dismissed after pressure from President Dalia Grybauskaitė, as well as other founding members, he established the Lithuanian List on 5 July 2012. It described itself as an "nonpartisan party" and sought to fight against what it described as "party nomenklatura".

Soon after foundation, it grew close to the Way of Courage, another anti-establishment party established in 2012 after a scandal in the Lithuanian justice system - the case of Drąsius Kedys. It did not run in the 2012 parliamentary election. Members of the party ran on the Way of Courage electoral list, including Valdas Vasiliauskas, who subsequently left the party.

The party won four seats on the municipal council of Vilnius in the 2015 municipal election, where their list was joined by economist Aušra Maldeikienė and Member of the Seimas Naglis Puteikis, who had left the Homeland Union the year prior. However, this was short-lived, as Puteikis chose to establish the ''"Anti-Corruption Coalition"'' with and the Lithuanian Centre Party instead.

In the 2016 parliamentary election, the party finished tenth with 1.80 percent of the vote. Maldeikienė was elected to parliament in the single-seat constituency of Žirmūnai, however, she was not a member of the party.

Decline

In 2017, the Electoral Commission reported that the party had violated electoral law by taking a loan from a private individual during the 2016 electoral campaign - even though, according to law, parties are only allowed to take loans from banks.

The party intended to run in the 2019 municipal elections, but did not register as an election participant in time. According to Kuolys, this was the result of a "human error", as the party's secretary was exhausted by work and had misinterpreted the date. In the same year, the party lost its only Member of the Seimas, as Maldeikienė chose to run in the 2019 European Parliament election with an independent electoral committee, "Aušra Maldeikienė's Train" ( lt, Visuomeninis komitetas „Aušros Maldeikienės traukinys“), and was elected.

The party ceased activity since 2020. On 3 October 2023, the Electoral Commission announced that the party will be liquidated, as it failed to provide a list of members two years in a row.

Ideology

The Lithuanian List described itself as a "nonpartisan party" and did not define itself with a political ideology, mainly expressing opposition to the party establishment and political corruption. It declared its intent to "restore the democratic Republic of Lithuania". In its "List of Tasks for Lithuania" ( lt, Lietuvos darbų sąrašas), it demanded to turn the Seimas into a "representation of the Nation", replace the parallel voting system with pure first-past-the-post voting, establish nonpartisan councils of experts in every Seimas committee, and reform the justice system and the State Security Department of Lithuania.

Most of the party's votes came from Vilnius. According to political scientist Matas Baltrukevičius, it represents the same electorate as the National Alliance.

Election results

Seimas

Municipal

References

{{Lithuanian political parties

Political parties in Lithuania
Political parties established in 2012