Freedom in the World 1999 - Lithuania

1999 Scores

Status: Free
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Civil Liberties: 2
Political Rights: 1

Overview

Faced with the public's dissatisfaction over its economic austerity policies, the ruling Homeland Union/Lithuanian Conservatives (HU/LC) experienced a resounding defeat in both the March local elections and the October parliamentary vote. The center-left New Alliance (Social Liberals) secured the most seats in the municipal poll, while the left-wing Social Democratic Coalition, led by former president and Communist leader Algirdas Brazauskas, captured the most seats in the national legislature. However, an ideologically diverse grouping of four parties secured enough support to form a new centrist government with Rolandas Paksas as prime minister.

Lithuania merged with Poland in the sixteenth century and was subsequently absorbed by Russia in the eighteenth century. After gaining its independence at the end of World War I, Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 under a secret protocol of the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact. The country regained its independence with the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991.

In 1992 parliamentary elections, the Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party (LDDP), the successor to the Communist Party, won 79 of 141 seats. Algirdas Brazauskas, a former head of the Communist Party, became the country's first directly elected president in 1993. With two LDDP-led governments tainted by financial scandal in the wake of a banking crisis, the HU/LC secured the most votes in parliamentary elections in 1996, followed by the Christian Democrats. The two parties formed a center-right coalition government, and Gediminas Vagnorius of the HU/LC was named prime minister.

In January 1998, Lithuanian-American and independent candidate Valdas Adamkus was narrowly elected president over former prosecutor-general Arturas Paulauskas. Prime Minister Vagnorius of the HU/LC, a party with which Adamkus agreed on a number of issues, was chosen to serve a second term.

Following months of growing tensions between Adamkus and Vagnorius over political, economic, and personal issues, Adamkus called on Vagnorius in mid-April 1999 to resign. Vagnorius, who stepped down on May 3, was succeeded by Vilnius mayor and HU/LC member Rolandas Paksas on May 18. However, Paksas' term in office lasted less than six months, when he resigned on October 27 in protest over the controversial sale of part of the state-owned Mazeikiu Oil complex to the U.S. energy company Williams International. On October 29, President Adamkus nominated HU/LC member and parliamentary First Deputy Chairman Andrius Kubilius as prime minister, the same day on which the Williams deal was formally concluded. On November 2, parliament approved Kubilius by a vote of 82 to 20.

In the March 2000 local election, the ruling HU/LC captured only 199 of 1,667 seats on various municipal councils, a considerable decrease from the 483 seats secured in the previous vote in 1997. Widespread dissatisfaction with the government's austerity policies and the country's economic difficulties had eroded much of the party's popularity during the year. The newly created center-left New Alliance (Social Liberals), led by Arturas Paulauskas, won the single largest number of seats, at 270, while the Farmers' Party/Christian Democratic Union coalition came in second overall with 224 seats. Both forces managed to capitalize on the public's discontent not only with the HU/LC, but also with the four other major established political parties of both the right and the left: the Christian Democrats, Center Union, Social Democrats, and the LDDP.

The results of the local election foreshadowed another loss in the October 8 parliamentary vote for the HU/LC, which came in a distant fourth with only nine seats. The left-wing Social Democratic Coalition, which united four leftist parties including the LDDP and was led by former President Algirdas Brazauskas, secured the most number of seats at 51. Popular discontent with persistent economic hardships was one of the factors in the victory of the coalition, which had campaigned on a platform of greater attention to social issues and increased support for the country's agricultural sector. However, the informal New Policy electoral bloc, which was composed of the ideologically diverse Liberal Union (34 seats), New Alliance (29 seats), Center Union (3 seats), and Modern Christian Democratic Union (1 seat) parties, bypassed the Social Democratic Coalition to form the new government. The bloc obtained a bare parliamentary majority by also securing the support of two smaller parties that had won a total of six seats. In late October, parliament confirmed Rolandas Paksas as the new prime minister, returning him to the post one year after the end of his previous tenure in that position. The New Alliance's Arturas Paulauskas was named parliamentary chairman.

Under a November 1999 lustration law, all former KGB collaborators were required to register with a special state commission during a six-month period from February 1 to August 5, 2000. With the exception of certain government officials, those who came forward would have their names kept in a confidential database, while those who did not would risk having their identities disclosed to the public and being banned from certain professions. By the end of the registration process, some 1,500 Lithuanians had registered themselves with the commission.

While the economic recession of 1999, which resulted largely from the August 1998 Russian crisis, lasted longer in Lithuania than in its two Baltic neighbors of Estonia and Latvia, the economy began to recover slowly during the year 2000. In December, Lithuania became the last European Union candidate state to be formally accepted as a member of the World Trade Organization.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Lithuanians can change their government democratically. The 1992 constitution established a 141-member parliament (Seimas), in which 71 seats are selected in single-mandate constituencies and 70 seats are chosen by proportional representation, all for four-year terms. A July 2000 amendment to the electoral law changed the single-mandate district contests from majority (more than 50 percent of the vote) to plurality, or first-past-the-post, races. The president is directly elected for a five-year term. The 1996 and 2000 national legislative elections and the 1997-1998 presidential vote were conducted freely and fairly.

The government generally respects freedom of speech and the press. There is a wide variety of privately owned newspapers, and several independent, as well as state-run, television and radio stations broadcast throughout the country. In December 1999, parliament approved new amendments to the law on media eliminating the compensation ceiling for libel and slander. Critics of the law argue that it could increase the number of frivolous lawsuits and jeopardize press freedom and investigative reporting. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by law and enjoyed in practice in this largely Roman Catholic country. The extremist Freedom Union, known for its anti-Semitic remarks, garnered a surprise victory in the 2000 local elections in the second city of Kaunas, including the mayoral post.

Freedom of assembly and association is generally respected. Although the Communist Party of Lithuania continues to be banned, the LDDP was formed in 1990 as its successor. Workers have the right to form and join trade unions, to strike, and to engage in collective bargaining. However, ongoing problems include inadequate or employer-biased legislation, management discrimination against union members, and the court system's lack of expertise in labor-related issues.

While the judiciary is largely independent from the executive branch, there is a severe lack of qualified judges, who consequently suffer from excessive workloads. In July 2000, parliament adopted the country's first post-Soviet civil code, which was drafted in accordance with European Union norms. Accused Nazi war criminal Aleksandras Lileikis, whose trial had been repeatedly delayed for more than two years because of his poor health, died in September before a final court verdict could be passed. Various Jewish groups had criticized the numerous delays of the trial, which was the first Nazi war crimes proceeding in Lithuania. There have been credible reports of police abuse of suspects and detainees, and overcrowding in prisons and pretrial detention facilities remains a serious problem.

The rights of the country's ethnic minorities are protected in practice. In 1992, Lithuania extended citizenship to all those born within its borders, and more than 90 percent of nonethnic Lithuanians, mostly Russians and Poles, became citizens. Women face discrimination in educational institutions and the workplace, including underrepresentation in upper-level management positions and lower average wages compared to men.