After Saturdays’s CC’s (Constitutional Court) and Media’s show, when announcing conclusion of a major breach of electoral law of Seimas of LR (Lithuanian Republic), mass media reported that the conclusion was opposite, while press was shimmering with photos of a ‘victor’ Uspaskich (old technologies of the black press) there was rejoicing, that the Labour Party will further consolidate positions, ‘ordinary’ people were asking – what is going on here?
If the work of Constitutional Court is to answer the question – has or has not the crude breach of electoral law of Seimas happened, why it was not possible to determine the election results, who gave the right for Constitutional Court judges to interpret ate their own conclusion, to explain, that Seimas supposedly does not have a right to destroy the results of constituency list voting?
However people are never going to receive an answer, because, as usual in all resonant cases, the verdict is being written by the ‘free and independent media’, which reported algoisms to the CC: even though the stated breach of which it is impossible to determine the will of voters happened, there was no infringement.
Not just once I had noticed, that there are times when there is a lack of common sense in court judgments (this is also a court term), also within the judgments one cannot find logics even with a lantern.
For that kind of thinking ‘the breach has happened, but it did not happened’ any student in logics lecture would receive a zero and would not be allowed to finish his studies.
Although the picture is that our Constitutional Court judges – who, according to the Court law, obeys only to inner conviction, laws, moral, public order, often disregards these mostly theoretical (to them) regulations. That is how the chase of constitutional spirits emerges, that is how semi-parliamentary country in some kind of ‘spiritual’ decision in 1998 tried to make in to parliamentary – while no CC decision can change the Constitution in which it is written, that country’s ruler – is President.
Also that People realize their sovereignty through elected representatives – that is through the President and Seimas. And, of course, courts do not fit to this category, although they are universally interpreted as one of the three governments. They had become something like political trust officers, who are not free, and behaves so, that they would be liked by ones and the others would not be offended.
And even though media had shouted that CC made a compromised decision I will tell you simply and clearly – when a woman has a pregnancy test doctor does not say – you are pregnant but not pregnant. Or if a forensic medicine expert has a body expertise, he does not write that a body of a deed man is still a little bit alive but dead.
Yet Constitutional Court who dears dares to hang portraits of Lithuania’s Constitutional law patriarch Mykolas Riomeris in their hallways, and dares to pass such decisions, does not deserve to even call them self’s an institution whose name consist a word ‘court’.
What is more when judges of this quasi-court did not even stood up when judgment, so important to the whole nation, was being read, then this institution had showed that its workers, above all, do not respect themselves.
It is popular to name universities, reading-rooms, conferences after M. Riomeris name, but somehow it is very unpopular to follow him. While the father of Constitutional law had graduated in few universities, was seeking perfection in Sankt Petersburg and Paris. He was always on his toes, always strict and fair, students who would falsify their studying data he would remove without any right to ever being able to work in the public service, because at that time Lithuania’s university in Kaunas was preparing people to be judges.
Now after graduating from ‘Kapsuas’ some even after defending soviet dissertations, sit, having trampled any respect for the Constitution and the nation, they are to decide the future destiny of Lithuania.
Then how CC tribunal is different from the CEC committee (Central Election Commission), who decided destiny of Lithuania – the voting results were being counter however they want, while CEC were consolidating whatever they wanted.
Not only Zenonas Vaigauskas face was pale yesterday – CC judges had their heads low, nervously ruffled papers, announcer was not fluent when he spoke.
It is good that when people do infringements, they are still chewed by their conscience – for all judges are sworn to serve the country, Constitution and the People. And what did we saw yesterday? ‘Somehow we will manage to deceive the People, we will write such a decree and interpret it in such a way that there is no President and no Seimas who is going to dare to doubt us, who cannot be appealed’, as if they wanted to say that with their arrogant behavior, when they tried to prescribe Seimas of how it should vote and interpret the conclusion, how there has been essential law violation of election of Seimas of LR, of which the electoral will was not reviled and thus it was impossible to determine the results of Multi-member Constituency.
However these ministerial institutions, who call themselves a court, who supposedly are not appealable, is only declaratory – European Court of Human Rights had noticed in its decisions against Lithuania, and for a while now, that this institution is administrative, and all its decisions can be appealed within 30 days to Vilnius Regional Administrative Court. Because in Constitution it is clearly written – that this court does not belong to the countries court system.
Lithuania after joining with European Court of Human Rights Declaration had made an obligation to guarantee at least one appellate institution for any decision from court.
It is possible that scared of being revised and being discussed in wide Europe and whole world having obvious facts about possible massive electoral vote-buying, knowing how to count arithmetical (what Zenonas Vaigauskas was not able), CC judges took on a legit conclusion – however because they needed to cause havoc in the country in the reasoning part – which, by the way, by violating the law, they did not announce, ‘due lack of time’, wrote whoever and whatever they wanted.
It is no secret that such a backup option – to apply to the ECHR concerning CC decision – was also being discussed in applicant camp.
Probably knowing weird and contradictory, wiry often also arrogant decisions of CC, members of Seimas were not going to put their hands down even if CC would decide that ‘nothing has happened.’
The CC still from the time of constitutional spirits chasing times feels as if it has the right to direct Seimas on how it should vote and how to think.
Even though this rather administrative institution (referencing to ECHR explanation) had made even weirder decrees than this, it cannot claim to change the Constitution – even if yesterday’s actions do look like an attempt of a small group trying to take over the sovereignty of the People.
These officers are not even elected – they do not represent People thus they cannot speak in the name of People.
The final decision is going to be made by the Seimas.
Besides, some sources say that a worse scenario was being prepared – the CC should have taken the decision that there were no violations. The votes of CC judges were distributed 5 versus 4. And at the deciding moment it was Tamara Birmontienė that stood to the side of truth – yes the same one – that was talked about because she wrote her dissertation about Soviet militia.
Dissertation dissertations – there are more than that written in ‘these days’.
Obviously, the revision of Constitutional Court is necessary, and the inspection in aspect of loyalty to the country and to the law.
Yesterday everything could have ended differently – there comes a group of people, reads the conclusion, says, cannot be appealed, and then flounders through whole cadence with those 3 thousand probably bought votes.
Although the Labourers yesterday did not felt in any way uncomfortable – they even said: as if, now everything is possible, nothing is proven.
As if we should wait for another LP case, while during that time they would rule the country.
There is a lot of talk as to possibly committed crimes – are light.
Today it becomes obvious that the scale of agreement is that big, that it is possible that prosecution will have to investigate a crime against the nation of a group of people trying to take the authority in non-democratic way.
How else should we handle CECs and its chairman violations, of failure to fulfill its functions, did not revise County Commission arbitrariness, when arbitrary took the district committee functions. When he ‘took a blind eye’ to 452 votes who just ‘multiplied’ after taking them from Kaštonai district.
These kinds of ‘marvels’ are called taking over the nation and fore these kinds of crimes in normally operating countries happens very normal pretrial inquests. And criminal liability is being applied.
Kristina Apanavičiūtė, a lawyer
