Latvia, Legislation, Lithuania

Proposals to reduce the mystical number of members of Lithuanian Parliament – 141 – are completely ignored. The example of neighbouring Latvia did not urge our MPs to make changes. Latvian President Andris Berzins a week ago said that the responsibility for the number of the Saeima members must depend on the number of residents in the country, reports LETA/ELTA, referring to Vakaro zinios.

Long-serving MP Ceslovas Jursenas, when heading the Seimas back in the period from 1992 to 1996, announced a referendum to decide whether the number of MPs should be reduced to 111, yet, the referendum idea was killed as it did not receive enough support.

Jursenas says that 111 members of the Seimas would do the work of the current 141 if they worked really well. Yet, as MP Valentinas Mazuronis points out, such initiative would be again killed as the politicians would be afraid to lose their fat job. "As you can see, almost all current MPs are planning to stand for the parliamentary elections again. It is an example of placing personal interests above the state interests," Mazuronis said.